23920: Craig (pub) Haiti Gov't Negotiates With Ex - Soldiers (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Dan Craig <sak-pase@bimini.ws>

Haiti Gov't Negotiates With Ex - Soldiers
December 16, 2004
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 7:40 p.m. ET

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) -- With hundreds of U.N. troops
and Haitian police at the ready, government negotiators met
Thursday with ex-soldiers who have seized the abandoned
estate of ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide to demand
the reinstatement of the army Aristide had disbanded.

Haiti's interim government has warned the rebels must leave
the compound in Tabarre, on the outskirts of the capital
Port-au-Prince, because it belongs to the state. But the
men refuse to go.

``The transitional government will take all necessary steps
to put an end to this intolerable situation with the
assistance of the ... U.N. stabilization force,'' the
government said in a statement.

But Col. Carlos Barcellos, spokesman for the Brazilian
force leading the peacekeepers, said they did not plan to
storm the estate. About a mile of road leading to the
compound is blocked off with several U.N. armored vehicles
barricading the entrance.

Inside are dozens of anti-Aristide ex-soldiers who led a
three-week rebellion that forced the former ruler to flee
the country in February. They took over the compound on
Wednesday.

The rebels include members of the army which first ousted
Aristide in 1990, and which he disbanded after a U.S.
intervention restored him to power in 1994. The ex-soldiers
refuse to lay down their weapons and say they want to play
a law-enforcement role in Haiti, whose interim government
has been unable to fill the power vacuum left by Aristide.

They are demanding the official reinstatement of their
corps, ten years' back pay and the restitution of their
pension fund, which has mysteriously disappeared.

``We are staying here. We will not back down,'' former Sgt.
Remissainthe Ravix, one of the rebel leaders, said on
private Radio Vision 2000 on Thursday.

A three-member government negotiating team including
Justice Minister Bernard Gousse, Culture Minister Magaly
Comeau Denis and Cabinet chief Michel Brunache arrived at
the scene Thursday afternoon, a U.N. official said on
condition of anonymity. They negotiated with several rebels
on the street outside the house, then left after less than
two hours, the official said.

A single gunshot cracked about an hour before they arrived,
but reporters behind the barricade could not see who shot
it.

The interim government fired the appointed mayor and two
deputy mayors of Tabarre, who reportedly handed Aristide's
residence over to the soldiers, the U.N. mission said.

The government categorized the men at the compound as
``outlaws,'' setting a tougher tone than usual.

The former soldiers have grown increasingly frustrated with
the interim government, which says only an elected
government can reinstate the army. Elections are scheduled
in 2005.

The ex-soldiers, whose previous base was in suburban
Petionville, say that Haiti's ill-equipped police force of
only 4,000 is not able to provide security in the Caribbean
country of 8 million people, and have offered their
services.

They patrol some parts of the country, mostly provincial
towns, though human rights groups have complained they have
no right to do so and represent a danger to stability.

Tensions in Haiti have grown since Sept. 30, when Aristide
supporters began stepping up demands that he return from
exile in South Africa. More than 100 people have been
killed in clashes since.

The latest is the third confrontation between U.N. troops
and former Haitian soldiers in less than three months. None
resulted in violence.

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-Haiti.html?ex=1104245714&ei=1&en=82c41879b3ff2186
Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company