28832: (news) Chamberlain: Haiti gang leaders seek disarmament 'without bias' (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

     By Joseph Guyler Delva

     PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti, Aug 4 (Reuters) - A gang leader in Haiti's
largest slum said on Friday that he and others would be willing to lay down
their arms as part of a broader disarmament process in the impoverished and
violent Caribbean nation.
     The comments from Ti Blanc -- who heads a gang in Cite Soleil and said
he was speaking for other gang leaders there -- came a day after newly
installed President Rene Preval held out an olive branch to the disparate
groups linked to continuing political bloodshed and kidnappings in Haiti.
     "Several armed groups want to hand over their weapons, but they need
guarantees," said Preval. "We have opened a dialogue with them to see how
they can give up their weapons in a peaceful manner."
     Cite Soleil, a teeming warren of shantytowns on the outskirts of
Port-au-Prince, is known as a hotbed of support for ousted former President
Jean-Bertrand Aristide, who fled into exile in 2004 facing an armed revolt.
     "We heard the president's call and we want to disarm, but the
disarmament should be done without bias," Ti Blanc told Reuters.
     He was referring to concern among Cite Soleil's gangs that rival armed
groups, some allegedly linked to the Haitian police and to a U.S.-backed
interim government installed after Aristide's ouster, would be allowed to
keep their weapons.
     Cite Soleil's gangs have made other tentative offers to disarm but
none of them have borne fruit so far.
     After Preval won an election in February, the level of violence in
Haiti declined markedly. But it spiked again in July, prompting U.N.
Secretary-General Kofi Annan, who visited Port-au-Prince on Thursday, to
advise the Security Council against cutting back a U.N. peacekeeping force
in Haiti.