Violence-torn Haiti gets new prime minister

by Patrick Moser

Wednesday, March 10, 2004

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AFP): Gerard Latortue, once the highest ranking Haitian officials at the United Nations, was named the country's prime minister Tuesday, as two more deaths were reported in the violence-torn Haitian capital.

A French-educated lawyer and economist, Latortue spent much of his career at the UN Organization for Industrial Development. He was picked by a council of eight eminent Haitians who announced their choice after discussing with interim President Boniface Alexandre.

"I am very happy to see the trust placed in me by the council of wise men who recommended me for the post of prime minister," Latortue, 69, told AFP in a phone call from Miami.

The council was formed under a plan approved by the United States, France and the Organization of American States aimed at restoring stability to the impoverished nation, where violence surged after then-president Jean Bertrand Aristide resigned and left for exile in Africa on February 29.

The announcement came as US Marines and local police struggled to restore order in volatile Port-au-Prince.

Late Monday, US Marines opened fire on a vehicle racing toward a checkpoint, killing one man and wounding another. The incident took place near the looted industrial park on the main road from Port-au-Prince to the airport.

The man was the second killed by US troops since they arrived in Haiti hours after Aristide left Haiti on February 29 following pressure from US and French officials, and with insurgents closing in on the capital.

On Sunday, the Marines killed one of two gunmen they said were shooting at the presidential palace.

US Colonel Mark Gurganus, who heads the multinational force in Haiti, said that by speeding toward the checkpoint the driver had clearly shown "hostile intent."

While no weapons were found in the vehicle, Gurganus said he had no intention of holding an investigation into the incident.

Inside the industrial zone, where presumed Aristide supporters went a looting rampage, the body of a man lay on the ground, and US Marines treated another on the spot before he was taken to a hospital.

Witnesses said police had shot the two.

Earlier in the day an angry crowd set up barricades of rocks and burning tires along the airport road and threatened motorists after hearing the Marines had killed a Haitian.

In a bid to ease the tension, Gurganus said the US-led force will assist Haitian police in getting weapons off the streets starting Wednesday.

Meanwhile in New York, UN officials appealed for 35 million dollars in international emergency aid. 

"The recent turmoil has made life even more precarious for the people of Haiti, who need aid now more than ever," said Jan Egeland, the UN's undersecretary general for humanitarian affairs.

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan stressed that Haiti needed long-term aid.

"This time around, I hope we, the international community, will have the stamina and the patience to stay for the long haul, because it's going to take time; it's going to take lots of hard work," he said.

On Wednesday a UN advance team is due in Haiti to help set the stage for a peacekeeping mission that will be deployed by June, a UN spokesman said.

But at the Pentagon, US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld said there was no sign of a humanitarian disaster in Haiti.

"There is ample food in the country from everything we're told. There may be distribution problems, but neither of those are currently an issue."

In Miami, Aristide's lawyer urged US Attorney General John Ashcroft to investigate the circumstances around the former leader's departure, calling it a "kidnapping" ordered by top US officials.

Washington said it merely answered Aristide's request to help him flee as armed rebels approached Haiti's capital.

"So it was not a kidnapping," US Secretary of State Colin Powell told National Public Radio.

"We were all minding our own business on a Saturday evening when this all broke and word came to me that President Aristide was asking about circumstances under which he could leave, leave the country and leave his office," Powell said.

However in the Central African Republic capital of Bangui, African Union Commission leader Alpha Oumar Konare met with Aristide and protested what he termed "the unconstitutional way" in which the Haitian leader left office.

French authorities, however, dismissed Aristide's claim that he remains the country's elected president, stressing he had signed a letter of resignation before flying into exile.

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