23999: 'pub) Chamberlain; Haiti-Former Soldiers (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

   By AMY BRACKEN

   PORT-AU-PRINCE, Dec 31(AP) -- Haiti's interim prime minister met with
former soldiers who helped topple President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, giving
them back pay in an effort to placate increasingly restless fighters who
still control several provincial towns.
   Gerard Latortue distributed checks to about 50 members of Haiti's
demobilized army in the central town of Hinche, said Jacques Abraham, an
official who coordinates the government's dealings with the ex-soldiers.
   "They were in a very emotional state on receiving their checks," Abraham
said. "Some of them trembled."
   It was Latortue's second meeting with former soldiers since his
government agreed to their demands for 10 years of back pay.
   The ex-soldiers claim they are owed the money because Aristide illegally
disbanded the army in 1995 after a U.S.-backed intervention restored him to
power following the 1991 military coup that first ousted him.
   The former soldiers and others who are accused of killings, rapes and
torture under the 1991-94 military regime led a three-week rebellion in
February that drove Aristide into exile in South Africa. The rebels still
control several towns, sometimes driving police from their stations and
insisting they are better prepared to provide security.
   Latortue agreed to their demands after a group of former soldiers
occupied Aristide's abandoned estate outside the capital of Port-au-Prince
two weeks ago, triggering a two-day showdown with U.N. peacekeepers. The
U.N. troops eventually forced their way into the compound and persuaded the
rebels to turn in their weapons and leave.
   On Tuesday, Latortue distributed checks to 33 former soldiers who seized
Aristide's old estate. Another 100 ex-soldiers were compensated Wednesday
in the southern town of Jacmel, and 93 more will receive payments in
Port-au-Prince on Monday, Abraham said.
   Officials have said it could cost the government $29 million to
compensate some 6,000 former soldiers, though it has not explained where
the funds will come from. The government has also agreed to help the
ex-soldiers find jobs, though it has said it has no mandate to reinstate
the army.
   Scores of men claiming to belong to the demobilized army have lined up
at the Port-au-Prince police academy -- where the first 33 soldiers were
paid -- to apply for government jobs, including posts in the police force.
   Of the 14,000 people who have claimed to be former soldiers at sign-up
centers across the country in recent months, less than half were determined
to have been in the army when it was dismantled, said Marc Charles, who
conducted the government census.