23930: Severe: (Pub) MINUSTAH Storms Aristide Compound (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Constantin Severe <csevere@hotmail.com>

By Joseph Guyler Delva
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (Reuters) 12/17/04 - U.N. peacekeepers stormed the
residence of former Haitian president Jean-Bertrand Aristide on Friday to
evict rebel former soldiers who took over the compound two days before in
defiance of the authorities.

No shots were fired, U.N. spokesman Damian Onses Cardona said.

It was unclear what had happened to the 100 or so ex-Haitian military who
seized the ousted president's home on Wednesday, saying they planned to use
its grounds to train a new army. One U.N. soldier was heard calling for
handcuffs.

"At the request of the Haitian government we have intervened and so far
there has not been one shot fired," Cardona told reporters outside the
walled property in the Port-au-Prince suburb of Tabarre.

A two-day standoff between the rebels who helped lead a revolt that drove
former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide into exile in February, and the U.N.
peacekeeping force threatened to tip the unstable Caribbean country further
into anarchy.

Former members of the army Aristide disbanded a decade ago because of its
proclivity for coups and bloodshed, the ex-military were once hailed as
"freedom fighters" by interim Prime Minister Gerard Latortue for their role
in the revolt.

But relations soured as the former soldiers continued to press their demand
for the re-establishment of the army and for 10 years' backpay.

On Wednesday, they took over Aristide's abandoned compound in Tabarre, a
stone's throw from the main military base of the Brazilian-led U.N. force.

Criticized internationally and by the interim authorities for not doing
enough to halt escalating violence between foes and supporters of Aristide,
the U.N. peacekeepers surrounded the compound but failed to persuade the
former soldiers to leave peacefully.

On Friday, U.N. troops also surrounded a second compound where rebel former
soldiers had been holed up for two months, and were greeted with a shower of
rocks and voodoo curses