28436: (news) Chamberlain: Haiti-New Government (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

   By STEVENSON JACOBS

   PORT-AU-PRINCE, June 8 (AP) -- Haiti's Parliament has overwhelmingly
approved a new Cabinet that includes members from six political parties in
a strong show of support for President Rene Preval as he moves the
impoverished nation toward stability.
   In a vote late Wednesday, 84 of 86 deputies in the lower house approved
the 18-member Cabinet, which the Senate unanimously endorsed a day earlier.
   The new government reflects Preval's need to unite the conflict-torn
Caribbean nation after a February 2004 revolt toppled former President
Jean-Bertrand Aristide and touched off a wave of violence.
   The vote also formally confirmed Jacques-Edouard Alexis as prime
minister.
   Unifying the deeply divided country of 8 million won't be easy.
   Aristide's supporters are demanding his return from exile in South
Africa and the release of scores of prisoners jailed without charge in the
aftermath of the revolt. Some have accused Preval of sidelining them from
the new government, a move that could stir resentment in Port-au-Prince's
volatile, pro-Aristide slums.
   U.N. officials said Thursday that peacekeepers clashed briefly with gang
members who fired on their checkpoint in the sprawling Port-au-Prince slum
of Cite Soleil.
   The fight came after weeks of relative calm in the volatile area. Local
radio reported that several people were killed in the exchange, however
U.N. spokesman David Wimhurst could not confirm any casualties. No
peacekeepers were injured.
   Preval, who was sworn in last month after winning elections in February,
was Aristide's premier in September 1991, when the army staged a bloody
coup. Three years later, 20,000 U.S. troops intervened to restore
Aristide's democratically elected government.
   Aristide later backed Preval in 1995 elections when the constitution
barred the sitting president from running for a consecutive term.