30373: (news) Chamberlain) Haiti-Peacekeeper Patrol (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

   By STEVENSON JACOBS

   PORT-AU-PRINCE, April 12 (AP) -- As their two white armored cars push
deep inside Haiti's largest slum, the Brazilian U.N. peacekeepers peer over
their rifles for enemy gunmen amid spray-painted slogans saying "Down with
the U.N."
   But the graffiti seems to be contradicted by the smiles and waves from
gaunt women and children fetching water with plastic buckets.
   Two months ago, U.N. peacekeepers couldn't set foot in Cite Soleil
without waging gunbattles with armed gangs who controlled the seaside slum
by Haiti's capital. "We used to take fire all the time," Lt. Jose Serrano
told an Associated Press reporter accompanying the patrol he was leading.
   Now his unit has gone more than 60 days without taking fire, and Cite
Soleil is enjoying its most tranquil period since a 2004 revolt ousted
former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide and led to the deployment of 9,000
U.N. peacekeepers.
   The reason for the quiet, says the U.N., is its February offensive and
the arrest of 400 suspected gang members, including several leaders wanted
for a string of killings and kidnappings in Port-au-Prince.
   The gangs, at least for now, are out of commission in Cite Soleil. A
blue U.N. flag flies from a bullet-scarred school-turned-military base. A
few days after Serrano's patrol passed through, U.N. special envoy Edmond
Mulet made his second visit to the slum, and painted over a gang mural of a
Kalashnikov rifle as onlookers cheered.
   When Serrano was first deployed to Haiti in December, gunmen would fire
at the tires of his armored car. No resident dared speak to the soldiers
for fear of being labeled an informer.
   "Now they actually look forward to seeing us. It's better for them,
better for us," he said.
   Alfred Jean-Daniel, an unemployed 24-year-old who lives in a shack made
of scrap metal, said: "If the gangs come back, that will only bring
problems, and we don't need any more problems."
   But the peacekeepers aren't letting their guard down. A radio crackles
and the armored cars screech to a stop. The soldiers spill out onto a
dusty, sunbaked alley and creep block by block in search of gunmen. All
they get is grins and quizzical stares from onlookers.
   The peacekeepers' problem is to distinguish gang members from unemployed
youths hanging out on street corners. "The bandits are still here," Serrano
said. "They didn't all leave. It makes our job hard because we don't know
who is a bandit and who isn't."
   It's the same difficulty U.S. forces face in Iraq. Another Iraq parallel
lies in the likelihood that if the peacekeepers leave too soon, the enemy
will regain control.
   "Previous experience has shown that if we leave too early, we have to
come back again," Mulet said during his visit. "We'll stay here some time
until everything is in place."
   The U.N. mandate in Haiti expires in October, but the Security Council
is certain to renew it. About 9,000 troops and civilian police officers
from more than a dozen nations -- mostly Jordan, Brazil, Bolivia, Sri
Lanka, Guatemala and Chile -- serve in the mission. Fifteen have died in
Haiti, several of them in clashes with gangs.
   Keeping the peace in the long run will depend on how fast foreign donors
and Haiti's government can alleviate poverty. It's so severe that mothers
feed their malnourished infants "cookies" made from sun-dried mud to stop
their hunger pangs.
   On Mulet's visit, peacekeepers passed out chili dogs and a soldier in an
alligator suit entertained children.
   "This is a great turning point in Haiti's history," the Guatemalan
diplomat told AP. "This is only the beginning, to get rid of the gangs'
leaders ... Now it is a matter of development and assistance to the
population."
   Last week, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said improved security is
allowing Washington to begin a $20 million program of job creation and
education to help Cite Soleil "turn away from dangerous pursuits and toward
... a better life."
   Dr. Jackie Saint-Fleur, the medical director at Cite Soleil's only
functioning hospital, has seen gunshot victims slow to a trickle since the
U.N. offensive. But he wonders how long the peace will last.
   "Things are quiet now, but who knows whether that will change in a month
or two?" he said.
   "The origin of the violence in Cite Soleil is poverty," Saint-Fleur
said. "If you want to end violence in Cite Soleil, you have to provide for
the people."