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It took an armed posse five days to track down Ti Roro. Once they did, Roro was beaten with sticks, taken to the morgue to identify his alleged victims, ringed with gasoline-soaked tires and burned alive. With no police, no courts and no law, communities are taking justice into their own hands, hunting down former militants of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide who they say made their lives a living hell."It took him more than an hour to die, but as he was burning, he admitted to all of the 15 people he killed in the last year," said Joubert Muraille, 41,...

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...

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti March 5 — 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. Excerpted--click for full article. ================================================================ Why are we Haitied so much? The Haiti invasion and the French-looking Candidate On Sunday morning, the scene was pure anarchy. To have called it a very chaotic situation would be putting it mildly. The whole thing looked very troubling. Confusion reigned as the free-for-all pandemonium -- the disarray and tumult -- grew wilder and wilder. As the cameras panned, zooming in on...

Aristide Spent Millions to Lobby Washington VOA News 05 Mar 2004, 17:35 UTC AP Jean-Bertrand Aristide U.S. Justice Department records show former Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide and his Lavalas Party spent more than $7 million in recent years to lobby the United States. The records show Mr. Aristide's government hired several lobbying firms from 1997 through 2002, while Haiti remained the poorest country in the Americas. The records say the efforts were to contact members of Congress and other officials to discuss moving the democratic process in Haiti forward, as well as aid and other issues. The Washington Times newspaper...

HALIFAX (CP) -- Some 425 Canadian military personnel will be sent to Haiti within days as part of an international stabilization force that will try to bring peace to the troubled Caribbean country, the federal government announced Friday. Defence Minister David Pratt said the deployment is expected to last three months. But he made it clear Canada hopes to establish long-term stability in a country that has become synonymous with political turmoil. "Haiti is not going to be left in a lurch," Pratt told a news conference at CFB Halifax. The minister said the Canadian military contingent will help with...

<p>March 5, 2004 -- BANGUI, Central African Republic - Central African Republic will offer ousted Haitian leader Jean-Bertrand Aristide permanent asylum if he asks, but the impoverished nation would find it difficult to pay for his upkeep, the government said yesterday.</p>

<p>Former Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide said yesterday the letter he signed before his departure on Sunday was not a "formal resignation" and he plans to return to his country soon.</p> <p>U.S. officials, however, urged Haiti and the international community to focus on "moving forward." While they noted that only the Haitian people can choose their leaders, officials said Mr. Aristide has proven incapable of good governance.</p>

Nothing became Jean-Bertrand Aristide in office like his leaving it — and so not inviting still more bloodshed. The country's president and demagogue-in-chief decamped in the style of other Haitian dictators over the years. How many other presidents of Haiti have been forced out over its troubled history — 10, 20, 30? We lose count, though the more colorful stand out, like Papa Doc and Baby Doc Duvalier, father-and-son tyrants. Also, do you count Jean-Bertrand Aristide twice, since this is the second time he has fled into exile? The first time to the United States, and now apparently to any...

<p>Haiti's government, while controlled by President Jean-Bertrand Aristide and his party, spent $7.3 million between 1997 and 2002 lobbying the U.S. government as more than 80 percent of the country was impoverished.</p> <p>During this time, U.S. funding to Haiti — a typical measure of lobbying success — declined, and its economy foundered, fueling his opposition's successful effort to depose Mr. Aristide last week for the second time in 15 years.</p>

THE first Chilean troops arrived in Haiti on Thursday to join the international force attempting to restore in the Caribbean nation. The 120 troops arrived on a Chilean Air Force Boeing 707 jet. Eventually Chile is to send 340 troops. "These are special forces and they will be incorporated into units composed of French, Canadian and US troops," said Marcel Young, Chile's ambassador to Haiti, at the Port-au-Prince airport. There are about 1,100 US troops in Haiti, and by the end of Thursday 800 French troops and gendarmes were to be in the country. Canadian forces have also started arriving.

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) - Some smiles but also some hostile words greeted U.S. Marines as they expanded their patrols in Port-au-Prince as the capital took faltering steps toward normalcy after the resignation of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. Marines trained their rifles down gritty streets and into a teeming market after rolling into the looted port area in eight Light Armored Vehicles and venturing onto the streets. As merchants scrubbed pro-Aristide graffiti off their businesses, the exiled president's supporters vented their anger, holding up photographs of the former slum preacher who was ousted twice from the presidency. Aristide fled the country Sunday,...

<p>PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — U.S. Marines trained their rifles down gritty streets and into a teeming market as they patrolled the Haitian capital with other peacekeepers Thursday, drawing smiles and a few angry words, but no resistance.</p> <p>Hatred is still simmering among various factions nearly a week after President Jean-Bertrand Aristide was ousted in a rebellion that left at least 130 people dead, with new killings discovered outside Port-au-Prince.</p>

U.S. Says Aristide Rescued From Violence Thursday March 4, 2004 10:46 PM By GEORGE GEDDA Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON (AP) - The U.S. role in helping President Jean-Bertrand Aristide leave Haiti was partly a rescue operation because it spared him ``almost certain violence'' from armed gangs opposed to him, the State Department said Thursday. Aristide and his supporters have contended that the United States coerced his departure, consequently subverting Haiti's democratic processes. ``We did not advocate his stepping down,'' State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said. Boucher also brushed aside criticisms from the 15-nation Caribbean Community, which called for an investigation...

CNSNews.com) - A conservative black pastor says the White House and the State Department should investigate the Congressional Black Caucus's relationship with exiled Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. What do Congressional Black Caucus members have to gain by keeping Aristide in power? asked the Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson. Do CBC members, their family, or friends have business interests in Haiti, he wondered. "These questions must be answered. We need to get to the truth about what has been going on," said Peterson, who heads a group called Brotherhood Organization of a New Destiny. (Peterson, who supports various conservative causes, is out...

Democratic Congressman Charles Rangel was absolutely furious over the weekend. The ostensible reason for his rage was the Bush Administration's refusal to intervene in Haiti's latest crisis until after its corrupt, despotic ruler, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, was removed from power. Why the Rage? To be sure, Rep. Rangel and his colleagues in the Congressional Black Caucus have been the most steadfast of ex-President Aristide's supporters. They and like-minded members of the Clinton Administration were, in no small measure, responsible for the 1994 U.S. power-play that forcibly restored Aristide to the post to which he had been elected. The anger being expressed...

Now that Saddam Hussein has been bagged, the left has found a new third-world dictator to rally behind: Jean-Bertrand Aristide. The Haitian ex-president provides the perfect vessel for their anti-American delusions, and a dastardly plot to boot. All it took was a few phonecalls from Aristide (suffering greatly in a Central African palace) claiming that he’d been kidnapped by the U.S. military, and the left was hooked. It wasn’t long before Americans were treated to the spectacle of members of congress making wild accusations about the Bush administration’s ''coup'' in Haiti. Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry chimed in as well,...

In Bangui since February 29, the former Haitian president accused France of complicity with the United States in his removal. He let it be known he wants to return to his palace. On the spot [sur place], the tripartite committee began their first meetings as foreign troops settled into Port-au- Prince, in particular the Chilean contingent, a few months before the Brazilian contingent. Aristide accuses France of "complicity" with the United States. In Bangui (Central Africa) since February 29, the former Haitian president affirmed Thursday that he wanted "to return" to his palace because "there was no formal resignation...

Stars and Stripes European edition, Thursday, March 4, 2004 A U.S. Marine deployed to Haiti had a tearful reunion Tuesday with the mother he hadn’t seen since leaving the country 11 years ago, The (New York) Daily News reported Wednesday. Cpl. Harry Milbin is one of 400 Marines sent to stabilize Haiti and was guarding Toussaint L’Ouverture Airport when a woman carrying a picture of him talked her way into the airport, the report said. And when she saw her son standing on the runway, she couldn’t speak, and tears poured from her eyes. “Don’t cry, don’t cry,” Milbin, 28,...

(CNSNews.com) - A conservative black pastor says the White House and the State Department should investigate the Congressional Black Caucus's relationship with exiled Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. What do Congressional Black Caucus members have to gain by keeping Aristide in power? asked the Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson. Do CBC members, their family, or friends have business interests in Haiti, he wondered. "These questions must be answered. We need to get to the truth about what has been going on," said Peterson, who heads a group called Brotherhood Organization of a New Destiny. (Peterson, who supports various conservative causes, is out...

In land he knows well, Kidder says U.S. is to blame Williamsburg author Tracy Kidder, who spent extended periods in Haiti over the last decade while researching his most recent book, has watched with dismay over the past month as a country he came to know well has devolved into violence and political unrest. Kidder said he is particularly worried about the state of the public health system chronicled in his 2003 book ''Mountains Beyond Mountains,'' given the volatile political situation. Kidder, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of ''Home Town'' and other books, first visited Haiti in 1994 to write about...