Haiti-Marines
9-26-1994
^U.S. Marines Only Law in Cap-Haitien, Government Asks for Guns 103;NY108, AP Graphic HAITI-FIREFIGHT
^By ANDREW SELSKY
^Associated Press Writer
CAP-HAITIEN, Haiti (AP) _ U.S. Marines, now the only law in Haiti's second-largest city, reduced their patrols overnight in Cap-Haitien to discourage street celebrations.
In Port-au-Prince, hundreds of pro-U.S. demonstrators took to the streets and surrounded the police precinct headquarters from where the overthrow of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide was launched three years ago. They ringed the headquarters while U.S. troops moved in to secure the downtown building.
Hundreds more thronged outside army headquarters where military leader Lt. Gen. Raoul Cedras met for two hours with U.S. Ambassador William Swing and Lt. Gen. Hugh Shelton, the American military commander here.
The openness of the demonstrations at two of the most dangerous sites for pro-democracy supporters showed the rapidly eroding power of the military a week after the U.S. intervention.
The government issued a communique this morning urging citizens to surrender their weapons at Haitian army outposts. On Sunday, residents turned over their guns to American forces in Cap-Haitien rather than give them to the hated Haitian military.
U.S. military spokesman Col. Barry Willey announced a cash-for-weapons programs starting Tuesday, with American soldiers offering $50 per handgun, $100 for semi-automatic weapons and $200 for automatic weapons.
President Clinton today announced the lifting of all U.S. sanctions against Haiti except those that would help its military rulers.
Both the United States and United Nations imposed debilitating sanctions against the Caribbean nation after the ouster of the elected president. Clinton urged all sanctions be lifted.
Few people were at the Port-au-Prince docks today following an outpouring of support for U.S. soldiers Sunday evening. About 10,000 pro-American celebrants massed around the airport to gawk at the U.S. war machinery; one Haitian pushed a wheelbarrow containing a mock coffin for Cedras.
Few of Haiti's hated security forces were on the streets of Cap-Haitien on Sunday, a day after a Marine patrol killed 10 Haitian gunmen in the first clash with the U.S. troops that flooded to the country last Monday to help restore the elected government.
An estimated 800 police, soldiers and "attaches," civilian gunmen attached to the army, have either gone into hiding or fled, abandoning their police headquarters and an army barracks.
A U.S. Coast Guard cutter, meanwhile, arrived in Port-au-Prince this afternoon with 221 Haitian refugees from the U.S. naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. They were greeted by the U.S. ambassador, given $40 each in Haitian money and taken to a bus station.
The Haitians, picked up at sea while trying to flee to the United States, volunteered to return after U.S. officials visited their tent camps on the base, officials said.
About 14,000 Haitians are being held on the base. Since June, nearly 6,000 Haitians detained in Guantanamo have returned voluntarily.
Hundreds of Haitians, emboldened by the deaths of the armed men in the firefight with Marines, ransacked police stations, carrying off guns, identity cards, even musical instruments.
The Marines, meanwhile, backed off their initial report that the Haitians fired first Saturday night, touching off the deadly gunbattle outside the Cap- Haitien police station.
"One of our patrols saw a gesture by an individual with an Uzi machine gun. He took that individual out and a firefight began," said Col. Tom Jones, commanding officer of the Marine Air-Ground Task Force.
The gunfight broke out after an Echo Company platoon from the 2nd Marine Battalion of Camp Lejeune, N.C., which was on its evening patrol, stopped across the street from the police barracks.
Nightly patrols were cut back Sunday night to keep citizens inside.
U.S. servicemen are in Haiti to pave the way for the return of Aristide, and set the scene for democratic government in a country with no tradition of democracy.
Francis Jose, a Haitian-American Navy apprentice serving as an interpreter, suffered a flesh wound in the leg during the gunbattle Saturday night and was evacuated to the USS Wasp for treatment. A Haitian seriously wounded in the firefight also was taken to the American helicopter carrier.
In the early morning hours Sunday, police and soldiers abandoned their posts.
Word spread quickly to the streets, and hundreds poured out to loot the empty buildings.
At the main military barracks, Haitians took everything they could get their hands on, even tubas and trombones. They played the instruments in the streets as crowds gathered outside.
Some people fired guns into the air, but many handed weapons over to some of the 1,900 U.S. Marines in Cap-Haitien.
One civilian handed over a skull with a bullet hole.
The U.S. press office in the capital, Port-au-Prince, said Marines recovered about 150 M-1 rifles and numerous handguns.
Jones, the commanding officer of the Marine Air-Ground Task Force, said Cedras has accused the Marines of atrocities.
Just before midnight Sunday, in its first public comment on the gunbattle, the armed forces condemned it as a "brutal and odious act." At the same time, the military's statement, read on state television, urged the public be calm.
The statement was followed by one from the Foreign Ministry accusing U.S. Embassy spokesman Stanley Schrager of "incendiary" remarks.
The Foreign Ministry called Schrager, who ridiculed a government ban Wednesday on demonstrations, a specialist in "manipulation and disinformation."
Aristide has called on his supporters among Haiti's poor not to seek revenge in anticipation of his return to power, expected by Oct. 15.
^U.S. Marines Only Law in Cap-Haitien, Government Asks for Guns 103;NY108, AP Graphic HAITI-FIREFIGHT
^By ANDREW SELSKY
^Associated Press Writer
CAP-HAITIEN, Haiti (AP) _ U.S. Marines, now the only law in Haiti's second-largest city, reduced their patrols overnight in Cap-Haitien to discourage street celebrations.
In Port-au-Prince, hundreds of pro-U.S. demonstrators took to the streets and surrounded the police precinct headquarters from where the overthrow of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide was launched three years ago. They ringed the headquarters while U.S. troops moved in to secure the downtown building.
Hundreds more thronged outside army headquarters where military leader Lt. Gen. Raoul Cedras met for two hours with U.S. Ambassador William Swing and Lt. Gen. Hugh Shelton, the American military commander here.
The openness of the demonstrations at two of the most dangerous sites for pro-democracy supporters showed the rapidly eroding power of the military a week after the U.S. intervention.
The government issued a communique this morning urging citizens to surrender their weapons at Haitian army outposts. On Sunday, residents turned over their guns to American forces in Cap-Haitien rather than give them to the hated Haitian military.
U.S. military spokesman Col. Barry Willey announced a cash-for-weapons programs starting Tuesday, with American soldiers offering $50 per handgun, $100 for semi-automatic weapons and $200 for automatic weapons.
President Clinton today announced the lifting of all U.S. sanctions against Haiti except those that would help its military rulers.
Both the United States and United Nations imposed debilitating sanctions against the Caribbean nation after the ouster of the elected president. Clinton urged all sanctions be lifted.
Few people were at the Port-au-Prince docks today following an outpouring of support for U.S. soldiers Sunday evening. About 10,000 pro-American celebrants massed around the airport to gawk at the U.S. war machinery; one Haitian pushed a wheelbarrow containing a mock coffin for Cedras.
Few of Haiti's hated security forces were on the streets of Cap-Haitien on Sunday, a day after a Marine patrol killed 10 Haitian gunmen in the first clash with the U.S. troops that flooded to the country last Monday to help restore the elected government.
An estimated 800 police, soldiers and "attaches," civilian gunmen attached to the army, have either gone into hiding or fled, abandoning their police headquarters and an army barracks.
A U.S. Coast Guard cutter, meanwhile, arrived in Port-au-Prince this afternoon with 221 Haitian refugees from the U.S. naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. They were greeted by the U.S. ambassador, given $40 each in Haitian money and taken to a bus station.
The Haitians, picked up at sea while trying to flee to the United States, volunteered to return after U.S. officials visited their tent camps on the base, officials said.
About 14,000 Haitians are being held on the base. Since June, nearly 6,000 Haitians detained in Guantanamo have returned voluntarily.
Hundreds of Haitians, emboldened by the deaths of the armed men in the firefight with Marines, ransacked police stations, carrying off guns, identity cards, even musical instruments.
The Marines, meanwhile, backed off their initial report that the Haitians fired first Saturday night, touching off the deadly gunbattle outside the Cap- Haitien police station.
"One of our patrols saw a gesture by an individual with an Uzi machine gun. He took that individual out and a firefight began," said Col. Tom Jones, commanding officer of the Marine Air-Ground Task Force.
The gunfight broke out after an Echo Company platoon from the 2nd Marine Battalion of Camp Lejeune, N.C., which was on its evening patrol, stopped across the street from the police barracks.
Nightly patrols were cut back Sunday night to keep citizens inside.
U.S. servicemen are in Haiti to pave the way for the return of Aristide, and set the scene for democratic government in a country with no tradition of democracy.
Francis Jose, a Haitian-American Navy apprentice serving as an interpreter, suffered a flesh wound in the leg during the gunbattle Saturday night and was evacuated to the USS Wasp for treatment. A Haitian seriously wounded in the firefight also was taken to the American helicopter carrier.
In the early morning hours Sunday, police and soldiers abandoned their posts.
Word spread quickly to the streets, and hundreds poured out to loot the empty buildings.
At the main military barracks, Haitians took everything they could get their hands on, even tubas and trombones. They played the instruments in the streets as crowds gathered outside.
Some people fired guns into the air, but many handed weapons over to some of the 1,900 U.S. Marines in Cap-Haitien.
One civilian handed over a skull with a bullet hole.
The U.S. press office in the capital, Port-au-Prince, said Marines recovered about 150 M-1 rifles and numerous handguns.
Jones, the commanding officer of the Marine Air-Ground Task Force, said Cedras has accused the Marines of atrocities.
Just before midnight Sunday, in its first public comment on the gunbattle, the armed forces condemned it as a "brutal and odious act." At the same time, the military's statement, read on state television, urged the public be calm.
The statement was followed by one from the Foreign Ministry accusing U.S. Embassy spokesman Stanley Schrager of "incendiary" remarks.
The Foreign Ministry called Schrager, who ridiculed a government ban Wednesday on demonstrations, a specialist in "manipulation and disinformation."
Aristide has called on his supporters among Haiti's poor not to seek revenge in anticipation of his return to power, expected by Oct. 15.
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