Haiti-US Troops
9-23-1994
^Pro-Aristide Demonstration Breaks Out As U.S. Troops Fan Out PM-Haiti-Reluctant Refugees, PM-Haiti-Loose Ends AP Photo NY107
^By ANDREW SELSKY
^Associated Press Writer
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) _ U.S. troops beginning their first foot patrols through Haiti's second- largest city today encountered a band that serenaded them but also a few taunts and rocks, Marines said.
Marines took to the streets of Cap-Haitien overnight, armed with new orders to shoot Haitian forces if need be to stop them from menacing civilians. As they moved through the city, Marines standing guard at some points said they encountered rocks and taunts.
No one was hurt, and it was not known who threw the rocks.
In a lighter scene at a checkpoint near a bridge, two Marine armored personnel carriers were surrounded by Haitians and serenaded through the night. At one point, the Haitians brought out a band that accompanied the signing with a trumpet, bango and drums.
In Port-au-Prince, a Creole-language newspaper announced it was resuming publication today. The weekly Libete was Haiti's most influential newspaper and one of the loudest voices of the nation's disenfranchised poor when it shut down earlier this month amid death threats.
The Rev. Jean-Yves Urfie, a French-born priest who is the newspaper's editor, said today the newspaper would resume publication "even if there's still danger."
Haitians became bolder in their celebration of the eventual return of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide Thursday after the U.S. military widened its control and said American soldiers have discretion to use force to against Haitian police who brutalize civilians.
Thousands of Haitians broke into a spontaneous demonstration at the gates to the seaport, a staging area for the U.S. occupying force.
Hundreds brought out old leaflets and laminated voting cards with Aristide's picture on them, and waved them in triumph as they sang freedom songs. There were similar rallies in Cap-Haitien.
Only a few days ago, displaying such photos would have landed Haitians in jail - or worse.
U.S. troops took over an air base and Haiti's only known weapons depot as Haitian soldiers stood by.
Aristide, Haiti's first elected leader, was ousted in a 1991 coup led by army commander Gen. Raoul Cedras. His restoration and Cedras' ouster are primary aims of the U.S. intervention.
"There's an air of anticipation here among the people. There's a feeling that at last this nightmare is over and that people can move forward,%' U.S. Ambassador William Swing said in an interview today on ABC-TV.
Few Haitian security forces were seen at the port, where police beat one person to death and injured others on Tuesday while breaking up a crowd that had gathered on the docks to see the arriving U.S. troops.
U.S. Army Col. John Altenburg told a news conference Thursday that American forces "are expected" to help Haitians if they see them being assaulted and can stop the attack without enormous risk.
"We won't search out or patrol to stop all the violence, but if it happens before our eyes we'll take a graduated response, up to deadly force," said Lt. Col. Egon Hawrylak, commander of a U.S. Army battalion that took Port-au- Prince's air base on Thursday.
In keeping with an agreement signed Sunday by Cedras and a U.S. delegation led by former President Jimmy Carter, the 100 Haitian soldiers on duty did not resist the takeover of the dilapidated airfield.
The agreement, signed as U.S. warplanes were in the air ready to invade Haiti, calls for Cedras to resign by Oct. 15 and for Aristide to return. Instead of invading, the U.S. troops became an occupying force. About two- thirds of the expected 15,000 troops have arrived.
At the military airfield, 17 small planes, none visibly armed, were parked alongside two helicopters. Aging passenger planes, their wing and tail flaps missing, rusted amid chest-high grass alongside the runway.
Similarly, the weapons at Haiti's only known weapons depot were rusting relics, including six armored vehicles, anti-aircraft guns and artillery. American troops arrived at the depot in the suburb of Petionville to dismantle the heavy weapons.
One Haitian soldier at the depot said he was delighted to be able to work with the American soldiers instead of being the target of an invasion.
"We're still alive, so I can't complain," said the soldier, who would not give his name for fear of reprisal.
U.S. troops were also dispatched to protect pro-democracy Haitian leaders from rightist attacks, said U.S. Embassy spokesman Stanley Schrager. And American forces planned to move into the countryside and take over the training of rural police forces notorious for their harsh repression of civilians.
So far, the American troops have met with no resistance, but the intervention is soon to move into a more complicated phase that could produce bigger problems.
"The military problem is on the way to being resolved," said Herard Jadotte, a sociologist and former aide to two military-backed governments. "Now the problem is political, which is full of uncertainties."
Under Sunday's accord, coup leaders are to step down after parliament approves an amnesty or by Oct. 15 if parliament does not.
The Haitian parliament is not certain to authorize an amnesty, however, and one rightist leader predicted Cedras would not leave unless the amnesty is passed and extended to all those involved in the military-backed government.
"He will not abandon his people without a guarantee," Emmanuel Constant, leader of the rightist FRAPH party, told a news conference.
In the three years since Aristide's ouster, up to 3,000 Haitians have been killed in military-tolerated political violence, so the amnesty issue is sensitive.
Officials soon hope to repatriate many of the 15,000 Haitians at the U.S. naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, who were picked up at sea trying to flee to the United States.
Many of the refugees said they would like to go back home once Arisitde returns, but were afraid to go now after hearing Haitian security forces beat up civilians during the arrival of American soldiers in Port-au-Prince.
"They feel that if they go, the same thing will happen to them," said one of the refugees, Jean Alcimbaert.
^Pro-Aristide Demonstration Breaks Out As U.S. Troops Fan Out PM-Haiti-Reluctant Refugees, PM-Haiti-Loose Ends AP Photo NY107
^By ANDREW SELSKY
^Associated Press Writer
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) _ U.S. troops beginning their first foot patrols through Haiti's second- largest city today encountered a band that serenaded them but also a few taunts and rocks, Marines said.
Marines took to the streets of Cap-Haitien overnight, armed with new orders to shoot Haitian forces if need be to stop them from menacing civilians. As they moved through the city, Marines standing guard at some points said they encountered rocks and taunts.
No one was hurt, and it was not known who threw the rocks.
In a lighter scene at a checkpoint near a bridge, two Marine armored personnel carriers were surrounded by Haitians and serenaded through the night. At one point, the Haitians brought out a band that accompanied the signing with a trumpet, bango and drums.
In Port-au-Prince, a Creole-language newspaper announced it was resuming publication today. The weekly Libete was Haiti's most influential newspaper and one of the loudest voices of the nation's disenfranchised poor when it shut down earlier this month amid death threats.
The Rev. Jean-Yves Urfie, a French-born priest who is the newspaper's editor, said today the newspaper would resume publication "even if there's still danger."
Haitians became bolder in their celebration of the eventual return of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide Thursday after the U.S. military widened its control and said American soldiers have discretion to use force to against Haitian police who brutalize civilians.
Thousands of Haitians broke into a spontaneous demonstration at the gates to the seaport, a staging area for the U.S. occupying force.
Hundreds brought out old leaflets and laminated voting cards with Aristide's picture on them, and waved them in triumph as they sang freedom songs. There were similar rallies in Cap-Haitien.
Only a few days ago, displaying such photos would have landed Haitians in jail - or worse.
U.S. troops took over an air base and Haiti's only known weapons depot as Haitian soldiers stood by.
Aristide, Haiti's first elected leader, was ousted in a 1991 coup led by army commander Gen. Raoul Cedras. His restoration and Cedras' ouster are primary aims of the U.S. intervention.
"There's an air of anticipation here among the people. There's a feeling that at last this nightmare is over and that people can move forward,%' U.S. Ambassador William Swing said in an interview today on ABC-TV.
Few Haitian security forces were seen at the port, where police beat one person to death and injured others on Tuesday while breaking up a crowd that had gathered on the docks to see the arriving U.S. troops.
U.S. Army Col. John Altenburg told a news conference Thursday that American forces "are expected" to help Haitians if they see them being assaulted and can stop the attack without enormous risk.
"We won't search out or patrol to stop all the violence, but if it happens before our eyes we'll take a graduated response, up to deadly force," said Lt. Col. Egon Hawrylak, commander of a U.S. Army battalion that took Port-au- Prince's air base on Thursday.
In keeping with an agreement signed Sunday by Cedras and a U.S. delegation led by former President Jimmy Carter, the 100 Haitian soldiers on duty did not resist the takeover of the dilapidated airfield.
The agreement, signed as U.S. warplanes were in the air ready to invade Haiti, calls for Cedras to resign by Oct. 15 and for Aristide to return. Instead of invading, the U.S. troops became an occupying force. About two- thirds of the expected 15,000 troops have arrived.
At the military airfield, 17 small planes, none visibly armed, were parked alongside two helicopters. Aging passenger planes, their wing and tail flaps missing, rusted amid chest-high grass alongside the runway.
Similarly, the weapons at Haiti's only known weapons depot were rusting relics, including six armored vehicles, anti-aircraft guns and artillery. American troops arrived at the depot in the suburb of Petionville to dismantle the heavy weapons.
One Haitian soldier at the depot said he was delighted to be able to work with the American soldiers instead of being the target of an invasion.
"We're still alive, so I can't complain," said the soldier, who would not give his name for fear of reprisal.
U.S. troops were also dispatched to protect pro-democracy Haitian leaders from rightist attacks, said U.S. Embassy spokesman Stanley Schrager. And American forces planned to move into the countryside and take over the training of rural police forces notorious for their harsh repression of civilians.
So far, the American troops have met with no resistance, but the intervention is soon to move into a more complicated phase that could produce bigger problems.
"The military problem is on the way to being resolved," said Herard Jadotte, a sociologist and former aide to two military-backed governments. "Now the problem is political, which is full of uncertainties."
Under Sunday's accord, coup leaders are to step down after parliament approves an amnesty or by Oct. 15 if parliament does not.
The Haitian parliament is not certain to authorize an amnesty, however, and one rightist leader predicted Cedras would not leave unless the amnesty is passed and extended to all those involved in the military-backed government.
"He will not abandon his people without a guarantee," Emmanuel Constant, leader of the rightist FRAPH party, told a news conference.
In the three years since Aristide's ouster, up to 3,000 Haitians have been killed in military-tolerated political violence, so the amnesty issue is sensitive.
Officials soon hope to repatriate many of the 15,000 Haitians at the U.S. naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, who were picked up at sea trying to flee to the United States.
Many of the refugees said they would like to go back home once Arisitde returns, but were afraid to go now after hearing Haitian security forces beat up civilians during the arrival of American soldiers in Port-au-Prince.
"They feel that if they go, the same thing will happen to them," said one of the refugees, Jean Alcimbaert.
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