27477: (news) Chamberlain: UN troops step up patrols ahead of Haiti election (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

     By Kieran Murray

     PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti, Feb 4 (Reuters) - U.N. troops stepped up
patrols in Haiti on Saturday to ensure security in the first election since
Jean-Bertrand Aristide was ousted two years ago, but many people feared
voting day chaos and a new round of violence.
     Armored personnel carriers loaded with U.N. peacekeepers crawled along
streets on the edge of the capital's biggest and most dangerous slums,
stopping passenger buses and private cars to search for weapons ahead of
Tuesday's balloting.
     "People will see a lot of soldiers and a lot of police around to make
sure people know the election is going to go smoothly," said David
Wimhurst, a spokesman for the U.N. mission in Haiti.
     There were no reports of clashes between U.N. peacekeepers and the
armed gangs who rule over the poorest neighborhoods and are suspected in a
wave of kidnappings in recent months.
     The election is aimed at restoring democracy in Haiti after Aristide,
a champion of the poor who was accused of despotism and corruption, was
chased into exile by a bloody rebellion in February 2004.
     But Haiti, the poorest country in the Americas, has been plagued by
decades of political violence and no one was ruling out unrest around the
election.
     "There are many people who really fear maybe on election day there
could be chaos, and that chaos could provoke violence," said Johan Van
Hecke, the head of a European Union parliamentary delegation which is
meeting with leading candidates.
     Gang leaders and slum residents accuse Haiti's business elite of
trying to spark election day violence and deliberately placing polling
stations well away from their neighborhoods to prevent the poor from voting
in their candidate.
     Rene Preval, a former president and Aristide protege who later
distanced himself from the firebrand priest-turned-politician, is popular
among the poor and holds a wide lead in opinion polls.
     A 1987 election was halted when thugs killed more than 30 people in
the capital city Port-au-Prince, many of them at a polling station in a
school. Some Haitians fear that massacre may be repeated next week.
     "It's a dangerous city and a dangerous time. People are nervous," said
a Brazilian soldier with the U.N. force near Port-au-Prince's airport. "We
are nervous."
     The EU's Van Hecke asked candidates and their supporters on Saturday
to "be calm and respect the results of the election."
     Two leading candidates for president, businessman Charles Baker and
former President Leslie Manigat, had major street rallies planned for
Saturday in Port-au-Prince as campaigning entered its final hours. The
government decreed electioneering should end by Sunday night.
     Preval, who is opposed by Haiti's business elite, called off a major
rally in front of the National Palace on Saturday because of threats of an
attack against his supporters.
     The U.N. force, sent to back a feeble Haitian police department after
the 2004 rebellion that sent Aristide into exile in South Africa, has
nearly 7,300 soldiers and 1,800 civilian police on the ground.
     Despite the fears of violence, political leaders and election
officials have urged the 3.5 million voters to cast their ballots, even if
it means walking miles to a voting center.
     While many residents expressed fear about conditions for a safe vote,
others said they were determined to cast a ballot.
     "I heard there could be violence but if we are to hope for a real
change in this country we need to take the risk to go to vote," Maxime
Joanif, 29, a Port-au-Prince resident. "Whether there is violence or not,
I'm going to vote."
     Haiti, where most people get by on less than $2 a day, has been
ravaged by violence since the fall of Aristide on Feb. 29, 2004.
Peacekeepers engage in frequent battles with slum gangs, hundreds of people
have been killed and nearly 2,000 have been kidnapped for ransom in the
last year.
     The violence seemed to have ebbed slightly in recent days.
     Cautionary preparations for Tuesday's vote were in high gear. Schools
closed on Friday and were not expected to reopen for a week, while
government offices will not open until Wednesday. American Airlines has
canceled flights to Port-au-Prince on Monday and Tuesday.