Police, former rebels clash in northern Haiti

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Human rights group: Latortue in 'unholy alliance' with insurgents
Tuesday, March 23, 2004 Posted: 1253 GMT (2053 HKT)


U.S. Marines patrol Port-au-Prince, Haiti, on Monday. U.S. troops are part of a 3,300-member multinational force trying to bring stability to Haiti.

CAP HAITIEN, Haiti (AP) -- Police and former rebels held emergency talks Tuesday after clashes erupted between the two groups, less than 48 hours after police returned to this sprawling city that rebels claimed during a rebellion to oust President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.

The choppy transition was illustrated late Monday night when a shot rang out in front of a charred police station manned by rebels, and another outside a hillside hotel that the former rebels have used as a meeting place since taking the city on February 22.

Neither side admitted to firing the shots but the clashes underscore the challenges in the north where rebels have stepped in as law enforcers to fill a void. During the rebellion, many police and government workers fled their posts fearing reprisal attacks.

More than 30 police officers have returned to the city -- Haiti's second largest with more than 500,000 people -- but the former rebels still outnumber and outgun the police.

http://edition.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/americas/03/23/haiti.ap/

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1. Haiti 'still not under control'

On Sunday, the commander of the US-led multinational force in Haiti said his troops would not disarm rebels, despite earlier claims that this was an important move.

"This is a country with a lot of weapons and disarmament is not our mission," US General Ronald Coleman told Reuters....

Rule of law

Human Rights Watch's Joanne Mariner said rebel forces in Cap-Haitien were illegally detaining 16 journalists and former government officials sympathetic to Mr Aristide.

There was an increasing sense of insecurity in the area, she said.



"It has been three weeks since the peacekeepers arrived in Haiti, but the rule of law has yet to be re-established and there is no visible police presence," she said.



http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/3559245.stm

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2. New PM flies in to praise rebel gang

Gonaives
March 22, 2004

Haiti's new Prime Minister yesterday flew into the chaotic city where an armed revolt began six weeks ago, hailing as "freedom fighters" the ragtag gang that helped oust President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.

Arriving in a US Army helicopter, Gerard Latortue, 69, an economist, landed on a soccer field in Gonaives to a rowdy welcome by about 2000 people.

Mr Latortue was named by a council of Haitians to take over after Mr Aristide was driven into exile on February 29 by the revolt and US pressure.

He said that in the US, it was widely thought that the people in Gonaives were thugs and bandits. "But they are freedom fighters," he said

http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2004/03/21/1079823237671.html