Posted on 03/05/2004 2:00:38 PM PST by archy
U.S. Marines Deploy to More Haiti Cities
By MARK STEVENSON and PAISLEY DODDS, Associated Press Writers
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti - U.S. forces have expanded their presence in Haiti beyond the capital, deploying to at least two cities that are rebel strongholds, a U.S. military spokesman said Friday.
Troops from the U.S. Southern Command based in Miami arrived at Cap-Haitien, a key port on Haiti's northern coast, seized by rebels Feb. 22, and the western city of Gonaives, where the rebellion started Feb. 5, said Army Maj. Richard Crusan, spokesman for the interim international force in Haiti.
He also said forces may also be deploying to other cities. "We have teams throughout the country," he said, adding that some forces are in Cap-Haitien and Gonaives to train and assist police.
Crusan said the teams from Florida are in addition to the 1,100 U.S. Marines in the capital, Port-au-Prince, but provided no details about whether they are special-operations forces or how or when they arrived in Haiti.
The move came as police in those cities started trying to disarm rebels, although the U.S. military emphasized that disarmament was not part of its mandate in Haiti.
"We are not disarming," Crisam said. "That is a job for the Haitian police. We don't even want to touch (the rebels') guns."
Resistance to disarmament — one of Haiti's most urgent needs — is expected to be strongest in Gonaives, where a homegrown rebel movement drove out police and sparked the uprising that eventually led to Sunday's resignation of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.
Radio Metropole reported some resistance to the disarming, particularly in Gonaives, but no fighting. The report could not be immediately confirmed.
Paul Arcelin, a former ambassador to the Dominican Republic who is close to rebel leader Guy Philippe, told The Associated Press on Friday that rebels would keep their weapons as long as Aristide militants stay armed, because "tomorrow they'll come here and kill us."
Asked where the rebel guns were, he said, "We hide them."
Philippe, apparently under U.S. pressure, promised Wednesday that his fighters would disarm, but no disarmament plan has been announced. Philippe has said the weapons are in rebel bases scattered around the country.
In the capital, U.S. Marines on patrol Thursday met little resistance beside hostile words. They trained their rifles on areas where pro-Aristide militants vented their anger.
"You took our president — now you're taking our country!" a young boy shouted as a Marine convoy passed an angry crowd.
Others held up photographs of Aristide, who fled the country Sunday as rebels neared the outskirts of the capital and the United States and former colonial ruler France pressed him to resign.
Yet Haiti's capital also took faltering steps to normality after a rampage of looting, shooting and continuing reprisals in the wake of Aristide's flight.
Merchants wiped away pro-Aristide graffiti. People laughed as a Marine, fighting the heat, emptied a canteen of water of his head. Most Haitians walk many miles to get clean water.
"I feel much safer now the Marines are here," said Frantz Labissiere, 44.
In one major step, the opposition coalition and Aristide's Lavalas party agreed on a council of three men to start the process of forming a government of national unity. The three have a week to choose seven members for a Council of Sages that will propose a new prime minister.
Still, violence continued outside the capital, and Haitians wise to their country's cyclical bloodshed doubted the short-lived peacekeeping force offered by the international community could make any difference in the long-term.
In Gressier, six miles west of Port-au-Prince, an Associated Press reporter saw the bodies of four men in the street Thursday. All were shot in the head and three had their hands tied behind their backs.
"The rebels want to take over the country," said Gracious Laguenne, a tailor. "As soon as the Americans leave, they're going to come back and it will be the same thing all over again."
Leading opposition politician Evans Paul told France's LCI television that the opposition coalition would meet Friday with rebel leader Philippe and his associates. Those include two convicted assassins whose arrest is being demanded by human rights groups.
"We will need to work with Mr. Philippe and other sectors of the country that played an important role in this great insurrection that swept Mr. Aristide from power," Evans told LCI.
Philippe has said he wants to reinstall Haiti's disgraced army, which fomented 32 coups in its 200 years of independence and whose murderous instincts and corruption are largely blamed for making Haiti — a country steeped in mysticism and art — one of the most miserable in the world.
The army ousted Aristide months after he became the first freely elected president in 1990. Aristide was restored to popular acclaim by a U.S. invasion in 1994 and disbanded the army in 1995.
He lost much popularity in recent years as he failed to improve life for Haiti's poor and, as opposition grew, used police and militant loyalists to attack his opponents.
Aristide denies those charges and says the violence came from the opposition, which he accused of supporting the rebellion that led to his downfall.
Paul also told LCI television that they hoped soon to bring charges against Aristide, who remains in seclusion in the Central African Republic — another impoverished, coup-ridden former French colony. Officials there said they still were hunting Thursday for a third country to give Aristide permanent asylum but also were willing to offer it.
"He is implicated in crimes, in the embezzlement of funds," Paul told LCI television.
Questions persisted about the circumstances of Aristide's departure. He claims he was abducted at gunpoint by U.S. Marines, a charge Washington denies. South Africa along with the 15-nation Caribbean Community and an African-American lobby have called for an investigation.
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Associated Press writer Ian James in Port-au-Prince contributed to this report.
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