24367: (news) Chamberlain: Haiti-Old Guard (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

   By PETER PRENGAMAN

   PETIT-GOAVE, Feb 28 (AP) -- Like their rusty pistols, they are long past
their fighting prime. But these graying ex-soldiers in their faded uniforms
twice ousted Haiti's elected president and now are threatening a comeback
that could jeopardize promised elections to put Haiti back on the road to
democracy.
   They have challenged the present government, taunted U.N. peacekeepers,
and say they are poised for battle if their demands are not met. They want
the reinstatement of Haiti's army, which led countless coups and
countercoups and aborted the Caribbean nation's first attempt at free
elections in a blood bath at the polls in 1987.
   "This life is in our blood. ... We are ready for whatever comes," said
former Sgt. Clement Mathurin Etienne as he called into formation a ragtag
band of ex-soldiers with pistols, Uzi submachine guns and M14 rifles.
   These are the men who helped force President Jean-Bertrand Aristide out
of power in a bloody coup in 1991, only to be disbanded by Aristide in
1995, after the United States sent 20,000 U.S. troops to restore his
presidency.
   A year ago they unseated Aristide again, and still control much of
Haiti's countryside and some towns.
   The present government, a temporary one pending elections in the fall,
is demanding they disarm. So is the 7,400-member U.N. force in Haiti. The
ex-soldiers are defiant.
   "We are lifetime military people with an 'esprit de corps'," said
Etienne, a 43-year-old drill sergeant with thick glasses, in between
yelling marching orders to about 50 men. "It would be difficult for any
force to make us disarm because this is our home."
   The Haitian army's roller coaster ride has caused mostly suffering for
the country of more than 8 million people.
   The 1990-1994 coup regime is blamed for the murders, maimings and
torture of thousands of Aristide supporters, and today's former soldiers
include convicted murderers.
   Allegations of human rights abuses are resurfacing. In October, the
Lawyers' Committee for the Respect of Individual Liberty said it had
received reports of former soldiers raping women and young girls in
Port-au-Prince, the capital.
   Meanwhile, constant friction involving the ex-soldiers and Aristide
supporters demanding their exiled leader's return is hindering U.N. and
police efforts to keep the peace. Over 250 people, including 24 police
officers, have been killed in clashes around the capital since September.
   U.N. officials say they'll soon launch a major disarmament plan. "We are
prepared to use force against them if they don't disarm," said U.N. envoy
Juan Gabriel Valdes.
   So far, little has been done.
   When Haitian police and U.N. troops from Sri Lanka tried to evict the
ex-soldiers from the former police headquarters in Petit-Goave that they
took by force in December, a mob of supporters threw rocks at the
peacekeepers, who retreated.
   In another standoff that month, ex-soldiers took over Aristide's looted
estate and withdrew only after the interim government agreed to give them
back pay for the 10 years they were disbanded -- $29 million to about 6,000
former soldiers.
   Interim Prime Minister Gerard Latortue, who last year scandalized
Caribbean leaders by hailing the ex-soldiers as "freedom fighters," insists
the conflict will be resolved before elections.
   "These people don't represent much of a threat," he said in a recent
interview. "If they disarm, we'll give them everything they could want. If
they don't, the law will go after them."
   But those words were spoken before four police officers were killed Feb.
6, allegedly by former soldiers. Many doubt the peacekeepers and government
have the power or will to subdue the soldiers.
   "It will be difficult to have free elections without disarming the
former military," said Pierre Esperance of the National Coalition for
Haitian Rights. "They would try to control the electoral process in the
provinces."
   The men drilling at Petit-Goave, 40 miles southwest of the capital, are
determined to stay armed and active.
   "It's the will of the constitution to have a Haitian army," said their
commander, former Sgt. Michel Alophene, 43. "If anybody tries to remove us
from this base, we'll know what to do."