Haiti's U.S.-Backed Government Survives on Foreign Troops, Aid

SAINT-MARC, Haiti -- Police chief Jean Ronald Baptiste has a .38-caliber pistol in his holster and a nicely pressed policeman's uniform with shiny black shoes. That's the extent of his crime-fighting gear. He said he's so out-gunned and out-manned by the armed factions in this volatile town that he and his 90 officers never leave the station without an escort of peacekeeping soldiers from France.

"The police really exist only in name," said Baptiste, standing in his police station, which, like many across the nation, was looted and burned during weeks of violence that led to the ouster of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide on Feb. 29. "For the time being, the country has no control."

Three months after Aristide left the country for exile aboard a U.S. government plane, Haiti has barely picked itself up. A U.S.-led military force of 3,600 troops has been patrolling the country since Aristide's departure, but is phasing out starting Tuesday, to be replaced by a U.N. peacekeeping team, led by Brazil, with 6,700 soldiers and more than 1,600 civilian police officers. Officials said 1,900 U.S. troops would be rotated out of the country over the next several weeks.

Haiti has been almost completely dependent on foreign troops for its security and foreign aid to stave off insolvency and feed its people. Floods last week that killed at least 1,300 people underscored the country's near-total dependence on international assistance. For days, the only aid to reach people in the disaster areas was donated food ferried in on U.S. and Canadian military helicopters.

more............

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A4863-2004May31.html

26 May 2004 21:25:13 GMT

By Will Dunham

WASHINGTON, May 26 (Reuters) - The United States plans to remove all of its 1,900 troops in Haiti by the end of June as U.N. peacekeepers assume their duties in the Caribbean nation, the Pentagon said on Wednesday.

The U.S. troops, nearly all Marines, head a 3,600-strong "interim" international force that entered Haiti starting Feb. 29 after President Jean-Bertrand Aristide resigned and left the impoverished country amid an armed revolt.

The force, which also includes 900 French, 500 Canadians and 300 Chileans, has accomplished its mission of restoring stability and security, a U.S. military spokesman said.

The Pentagon last week announced it was shifting 3,600 U.S. Army soldiers from South Korea to Iraq this summer. The Army said on Tuesday it was considering sending units generally used only in training exercises in the United States playing the role of "enemy forces."

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http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N26731381.htm

EVERY DEATH CREATES NEW ENEMIES
MORE TERRORISTS
MORE DANGER
MORE DEATH
AND REMEMBER...
HE IS JUST GETTING STARTED...
BUSH'S PLAN FOR PEACE
IS THE PEACE OF THE COMMON GRAVE

LET AMERICA BE AMERICA AGAIN

http://www.bushflash.com/pax.html

From those who live like leeches on the people's lives,
We must take back our land again,
America!

:kick: