24091: (pub) Chamberlain: Haiti-Journalists Beaten (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

   By AMY BRACKEN

   PORT-AU-PRINCE, Jan 15 (AP) -- Assailants robbed and severely beat two
reporters for Haiti's largest newspaper while the journalists were covering
a cleanup effort by U.N. peacekeepers in a slum, their newspaper reported
Saturday.
   Meanwhile, Argentina's Foreign Minister Rafael Antonio Bielsa promised
that his country would stay engaged in helping Haiti overcome its crisis
and urged other countries to do the same.
   Bielsa said he was concerned about international commitment to helping
pull Haiti out of its crisis, saying the tsunami that killed more than
157,000 people across 11 Asian and African countries would likely distract
attention from the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere.
   "I'm here to say the truth, and Argentina is very concerned that the
tsunami and all that's happening in Asia will make the problems in Haiti
disappear among the international problems," he said at a news conference.
   U.N. troops have been conducting cleanup operations in slums, removing
burnt vehicles and other debris used by gangs as roadblocks.
   Reporters Claude Bernard Serant and Jonel Juste had covered one such
operation and were leaving Bel Air, a shantytown in the capital of
Port-au-Prince, on Friday when several men attacked them, Le Nouvelliste
newspaper reported.
   Serant fled after the attackers stole his money and broke his tape
recorder, it said.
   Juste was held for more than 30 minutes. The attackers left a message on
Juste's tape recorder saying, "Don't come back here. The next time you will
lose your skin," Le Nouvelliste reported.
   Serant was treated in a hospital and released, while Juste was kept
overnight for observation, Pierre Manigat, Le Nouvelliste's
editor-in-chief, told Radio Vision 2000.
   Manigat did not say whether he thought the attack was politically
motivated. Newspaper officials could not immediately be reached for further
comment.
   Bielsa, who holds the U.N. Security Council's rotating presidency, met
with interim Prime Minister Gerard Latortue, interim President Boniface
Alexander and several political and business leaders.
   He was wrapping up a two-day visit to discuss a U.N. Security Council
meeting Wednesday at which U.N. envoy Juan Gabriel Valdez said Haiti has
received only about 10 percent of the $1 billion in aid pledged by
international donors at a meeting in July.
   "The task we must take on is to see to it that all the promises that the
international community has made vis-a-vis Haiti be kept," Bielsa said.
   Argentina has contributed 550 troops to the 7,400-strong Brazil-led U.N.
peacekeeping force trying to maintain security since a three-week revolt
forced President Jean-Bertrand Aristide from power on Feb. 29.
   Violence in slums and other parts of the capital has jumped since
Aristide loyalists stepped up protests demanding his return from exile in
South Africa. More than 200 people have been killed since then.