News & Analysis This Month

PORT-AU-PRINCE, May 24 (AFP) - The United States is to give an extra 100 million dollars in aid to Haiti, which has been ruled by an interim government since February, taking the total to 160 million dollars, US ambassador James Foley said.

"This will be immediate aid that will be available in the first half of June," Foley, who spoke in French, told a news conference.

Haitian Prime Minister Gerard Latortue had traveled to Washington earlier this month to request more aid to his Caribbean nation, the poorest country in the continent.

"Mr. Latortue explained that the state coffers were empty, the needs and suffering of the Haitian people is increasing, electricity is lacking, trash is piling up, and there was deliberate destruction and pillaging by the former government," Foley said.

The United States has led an international stabilization force in Haiti since former president Jean Bertrand Aristide resigned and fled the country on February 29 amid an armed rebellion.

Foley said 35 million dollars will go to Haiti's budget, 22 million dollars to the judiciary and police, 16 million dollars for employment and nine million dollars for elections.

The rest of the money will be used to support democracy, fight corruption, restore electricity, pick up trash and provide humanitarian aid.

Four million dollars will also go to a police force within the United Nations' stabilization mission in Haiti, which will take over for the US-led force on June 1.

"The multinational force barely avoided a large war between (pro-Aristide) armed gangs and rebel forces," Foley said. "What this country needs most is peace."

Foley said he regretted the decision by Aristide's Lavalas party to stay out of an election council.

"The Lavalas party had given itself the historic mission of defending the country's poor, but the result was catastrophic with intimate links to criminal networks and drug traffickers," Foley said.

MONTREAL, May 21 /CNW Telbec/ - On May 13, investigators from the Federal Airport Investigations Section of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police arrested Jean Pierre Joseph, a 27-year-old Montréal resident.

Mr. Joseph is facing several charges, including attempting to import cocaine, possession of cocaine with intent to traffic, and possession of a loaded restricted firearm without the required permits.

Mr. Joseph is currently in custody and is scheduled to appear for his bail hearing on May 27. At the time of his arrest in Laval, Mr. Joseph was in possession of a fully loaded Ruger 9mm pistol. Another firearm, narcotics, and cash were also seized during the search of his residence.

The investigation was opened on December 23, 2003, after customs inspectors from the Canada Border Services Agency seized more than 12 kilos of cocaine at the Montréal -Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport.

The cocaine was concealed aboard an aircraft coming from Port au Prince, Haiti. The investigation is ongoing in collaboration with Montréal and Laval police and la Sûreté du Québec.

MIAMI, May 22 - (KRT) - A federal magistrate on Friday ordered the one-time commander of the Haitian National Police jailed without bail while he awaits trial for allegedly taking money to protect cocaine shipments passing through Haiti on the way to the United States.

The hourlong hearing in Miami at times resembled a curtain raiser for that trial. When it ended, U.S. Magistrate Chris McAliley ruled that Rudy Therassan, 39, should stay behind bars because he might flee or pose a danger to the community.

During the hearing, a prosecutor disclosed that Therassan had amassed a fortune that could not be explained by his police work, a defense attorney named two Haitians he suspects are U.S. government informants, and a Drug Enforcement Administration agent acknowledged the existence of a grand jury investigation of the case.

The judge agreed that Therassan had plenty of money if he chose to leave South Florida and go into hiding to avoid prosecution. During a search May 14 of Therassan’s apartment in Miami, federal agents uncovered documents indicating Therassan held large amounts of cash in several bank accounts in the United States, Haiti and elsewhere, Assistant U.S. Attorney Lynn Kirkpatrick said.

Agents also found just under $1 million in other material assets, including two homes in Florida and about $100,000 worth of watches and jewels, DEA agent Noble Harrison testified.

According to testimony, Therassan began cooperating with the DEA in November 2002 and the agency helped him enter the United States the following April. He met several times with DEA agents in South Florida and in Washington. It was not clear when or why his cooperation ended or how he graduated from witness to suspect.

"Mr. Therassan was never an officially documented source with the DEA," Harrison testified.

Therassan’s visa had expired and he was in the country illegally when he was taken into custody May 14 during a traffic stop on the Palmetto Expressway. An immigration hold was lodged against him Thursday, Kirkpatrick said.

Defense attorney Lawrence Besser grilled the DEA agent about the identities of the government’s informants, including a convicted Haitian drug trafficker and a former security official for ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.

Kirkpatrick objected before Harrison could name the witnesses, referred to in court as CS-1 and CS-8. Besser claimed CS-1 was convicted Haitian drug smuggler Bedouin "Jacques" Ketant, 43, who was sentenced earlier this year in federal court in Miami to 35 years in prison.

CS-1 has told authorities that, beginning in March 2001, he paid Therassan $150,000 per planeload of cocaine in protection money, plus the profits from the sale of 35 kilos.

At his February sentencing, just days before Aristide left Haiti, Ketant launched an angry tirade, accusing the president of turning Haiti into a "narco-country." He also blamed Aristide for his "kidnapping" by the DEA and the murder of his brother.

Therassan is in the thick of those allegations, as well. He has admitted killing Ketant’s brother, Hector, also a Haitian drug smuggler, in February 2003, although he claims it was in self-defense.

Therassan was shot in the shoulder before firing the shot that killed Hector Ketant, Besser said.

Later, Therassan was the police official who arrested Jacques Ketant, handcuffed him, drove him to the airport and placed him in the hands of DEA agents, Besser said.

"Let’s talk about CS-8," Besser said. "We all know who he is, but we’ll play the game." He then described the circumstances surrounding the arrest and extradition of Oriel Jean, 39, Aristide’s former security chief.

Jean is awaiting trial on a charge identical to Therassan’s. He is scheduled to appear in court Monday.

As Besser questioned how agents documented Therassan’s assets, the agent let slip, "That information came from a grand jury investigation."

Kirkpatrick quickly objected, saying any discussion about the grand jury was "improper at this time."

That a grand jury in Miami is looking into corruption and cocaine in Haiti is an open secret. Bush administration and U.S. Justice Department officials have said publicly that authorities are looking into whether Aristide, once a populist priest, and other members of his administration were corrupted by drug money.

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti, May 18 - Thousands of demonstrators called for the return of ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide during a Flag Day rally Tuesday that turned violent, leaving at least one man dead.

A woman looks at the body of Titus Simpson, who was shot in the head when riot police fired into a crowd that was calling for the return of former president Jean-Bertrand Aristide during a manifestation commemorating flag day in Port-au-Prince, Haiti Tuesday, May 18, 2004. (AP Photo/Evens Sanon)

Waving flags and carrying umbrellas bearing Aristide's smiling face, the demonstrators marched from the pro-Aristide stronghold of Belair toward the National Palace, just blocks away from a cathedral where interim President Boniface Alexandre was attending a Mass.

As the protesters neared the cathedral, riot police fired tear gas and then warning shots to disperse the crowd, which reacted by pelting government vehicles with rocks.

A 23-year-old demonstrator was shot and killed. It was unclear who fired the fatal shot, and police were not immediately available for comment.

U.S. Marines helped the police by conducting patrols but did not fire any rounds, according to Col. David Lapan, a spokesman for the U.S.-led multinational force that will be replaced by a U.N. force. Peacekeepers and international police are scheduled to start arriving on June 1.

Aristide claims that the United States forced him to resign amid a spreading three-week revolt on Feb. 29, a claim the United States denies.

The 15-nation Caribbean Community, which has refused to recognize Haiti's interim government, has asked the Organization of American States to investigate Aristide's departure.

Aristide is in Jamaica with his wife and two daughters but is expected to arrive soon in South Africa, where he has been given temporary asylum.

"We demand that Aristide return!" said Natjoska Jean-Baptiste, a resident of Belair who says the neighborhood has suffered since Aristide left.

Associated Press Writer Bert Wilkinson contributed to this report from Georgetown, Guyana.

MIAMI, Florida (CNN) -- U.S. federal agents have arrested Haiti's former national police chief in Miami, as part of the Drug Enforcement Administration's ongoing investigation into drug trafficking in the Caribbean nation, according to a DEA spokesman and court documents.

Rudy Therassan will appear in federal court Monday to face a single count of conspiracy to import cocaine into the United States, according to DEA spokesman Special Agent Joe Kilmer.

The court document alleges Therassan supervised drug trafficking operations while he served as the commander of the Haitian National Police Brigade from April 2001 until approximately August 2003.

The affidavit is based on the testimony of four confidential sources: a former Haitian drug trafficker who pleaded guilty to drug trafficking charges; a "cooperating witness" who has connections to targets of the investigation; a former Haitian government official who has been charged in the case, hoping for a reduced sentence; and a former Haitian police officer who has never been charged or convicted.

A law enforcement source, familiar with the investigation, identified the first source as Beaudouin "Jacques" Ketant who -- according to a State Department document -- was arrested in June 2003 in Haiti and transported to Miami to face drug and murder charges in the U.S.

In the court document, one of the informants testified he witnessed Therassan shoot and kill Ketant's brother, Haitian drug trafficker Hector Ketant, and his bodyguard after a dispute over money.

The informant, described as a former government official, testified that Therassan was ordered by an unnamed Haitian government official to kill Ketant.

After allegedly killing him, Therassan recovered a list of government officials involved in Ketant's drug business, the informant said.

Therassan told police after the February 2003 shooting that he and other police officers acted in self-defense while attempting to arrest Ketant.

The criminal complaint describes in detail the extent of Therassan's alleged involvement in drug trafficking, using his power as Haiti's police commander to provide security to drug shipments from South America.

The document alleges Therassan received $150,000 in cash for each plane-load of cocaine he allowed to land on Haiti's Route 9. The drugs were subsequently smuggled into the U.S., it states.

The U.S. has charged that Haiti, under deposed Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, was a "key conduit for drug traffickers transporting cocaine from South America to the United States," according to the U.S. State Department's International Narcotics Control Strategy Report for 2003.

Furthermore, "elements of that government were corrupt and shot through with drug money," according to Robert Charles of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs.

In March, the DEA arrested Oriel Jean, a former aide to Aristide, on drug trafficking charges.

Aristide left office in February 2003 and went into exile. A caretaker government is running Haiti pending elections next year.

OTTAWA, May 13 (Reuters) - Haiti, the poorest country in the western Hemisphere, should be given special, fast-tracked development aid by the World Bank, Canada said on Thursday.

"Canada is pushing at the World Bank to have Haiti designated as a post-conflict country, because if Haiti gets that designation then that will trigger at the World Bank a whole different approach," International Development Minister Aileen Carroll told Reuters in an interview.

Such a designation would make Haiti eligible for post-conflict financing from the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. These are fast disbursing loans with conditions that are less rigid than for more formal lending programs.

"We have to push hard on that because I know that's a priority for (Haitian Interim Prime Minister Gerard) Latortue," Carroll added.

Latortue met with U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan earlier this week to press for economic aid, telling the UN chief that sending peacekeeping troops was insufficient.

Latortue, a former U.N. Development Fund worker who has blamed lack of transparency for past misuse of aid, took office after weeks of fighting ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.

Big donors were still drafting their needs assessment study for Haiti, Carrolll said.

"If we don't go in there in a co-ordinated and large-team response, we are again going to be defeated by the situation down there," she said.

PRETORIA, May 13 (AFP) - South Africa said it was ready to give former Haitian president Jean-Bertrand Aristide a temporary home, nearly three months after an armed revolt forced him to flee his poor Caribbean country.

South Africa has agreed to give former Haitian president Jean-Bertrand Aristide, seen here with his family, a 'temporary home', nearly three months after an armed revolt forced him to flee his poor Caribbean country(AFP/HO/File)

Aristide, 50, is currently in Jamaica, where he arrived on March 15 from the Central African Republic, his first destination following his resignation in late February under pressure from the United States and France.

"This is a temporary arrangement until the Haitian situation stabilises and Aristide and his family can return," government spokesman Joel Netshithenzhe said Thursday.

No date has been set for Aristide's arrival in South Africa but ThisDay newspaper reported that he was expected here next week with his wife, two children and two bodyguards.

The former priest who was first elected in 1990, ousted in a coup in 1991 only to return to power with US military backing in 1994, had said from the outset that he wanted to come to South Africa.

But the government had let it be known that it did not want to agree to the controversial move ahead of April 14 elections, which President Thabo Mbeki's African National Congress won by a landslide.

"South Africa accepts financial responsibility for his residence and upkeep in South Africa," Netshithenzhe added.

Local reports said Aristide would take up residence in the capital Pretoria under tight security.

The government also said that it supported calls for an investigation into the circumstances surrounding Aristide's departure from Port-au-Prince after the former leader claimed that he was forced to resign by the United States and France.

"We oppose the concept of regime change and no country, however powerful, has the right to remove a democratically elected leader," said the government spokesman.

South Africa discussed its decision to welcome Aristide with US and French leaders "and everybody has agreed that we should offer a temporary home to president Aristide," Minister in the Presidency Essop Pahad told SABC radio news.

The main opposition Democratic Alliance has spoken out against allowing Aristide into South Africa, arguing that his democratic credentials were in doubt and that taxpayers should not have to foot the bill to support him.

It also said that France and the United States should take him in if they forced him to step down.

"The governments that are responsible for removing him from power should take responsibility for looking after him in exile. France and the United States were very prominent in this regard -- why not send him to Paris?" said Douglas Gibson, foreign affairs spokesman for the party.

Gibson was quoted by the SAPA news agency as saying that Aristide's 2000 re-election was marred by fraud and that Aristide had ordered his security forces to carry out political killings.

"He is personally responsible for a great deal of human suffering, and his record is an affront to the principles of good governance," said Gibson.

But supporters of the move point to Haiti's history as the world's first black republic, created when slaves rose up against French rule in 1804, as a moral reason for helping out one of its former leaders.

"This is the first slave revolt that was successful in 1804, the first one," said Kader Asmal, chairman of the parliamentary international affairs committee.

"Secondly, it was the revolt of blacks against colonialism. We can't forget that," said Asmal quoted in The Star newspaper.

SOUTH AFRICA, May 13 - The Democratic Alliance on Thursday questioned the government's wisdom in giving ousted Haitian president Jean-Bertrand Aristide "visitor status" in South Africa, saying the decision has not been adequately explained.

Briefing the media at parliament, DA foreign affairs spokesperson Douglas Gibson said Aristide rose to power in elections that were fundamentally flawed, and had also been implicated by credible organisations of being directly responsible for gross human rights violations.

"This makes the government decision to embrace Aristide all the more objectionable," he said.

*From: "Niki McQueen" <niki@da.org.za> To: <wehaitians@gis.net> Subject: RE: The odious crimes of Aristide Date: Tuesday, May 11, 2004 12:14 AM

Dear Yves

Thank you very much for sending us this. The Democratic Alliance is vehemently opposed to Aristide being allowed in this country, and we are doing all we can to prevent him from coming here. I have looked at your website, and I think it will be very useful for us. I have also forwarded your email to our foreign affairs and media departments.

Thank you again and best regards

Niki McQueen

-----Original Message----- From: wehaitians@gis.net [mailto:wehaitians@gis.net] Sent: 11 May 2004 07:02 AM To: niki@da.org.za Subject: The odious crimes of Aristide

Government had not explained its decision adequately. What legal authority had been used to allow Aristide entry into the country? Did Aristide in fact apply for asylum in South Africa, Gibson asked.

'There is no allowance for it in the current budget' "Is the government's decision to award Aristide only 'visitor status' a temporary measure, while it explores potential loopholes in the Refugees Act to get around his alleged human rights abuses and criminal activities, and later grant him permanent asylum?"

The DA also objected to the costs involved in accommodating Aristide and his entourage at taxpayers' expense.

"The ministers of foreign affairs and finance need to explain to parliament and the people of South Africa how much Aristide's stay is going to cost the South African taxpayer, and where the money is going to come from.

"Certainly, there is no allowance for it in the current budget. Which aspect of government's service delivery to our own people will have to suffer because of the government's servicing a deposed dictator?"

Government, having decided to allow Aristide to come and stay in South Africa, should at the very least give the assurance that he would not be allowed to interfere with what was happening in Haiti, or launch his political comeback from South Africa.

'Haiti is not in South Africa's direct national interest' "The government must explain to the people of South Africa the reasons for its decision to allow a discredited dictator into our country.

"Haiti is not in South Africa's direct national interest; our actions on this matter have only served to cast doubt on our commitment to the values of respect for human rights and democracy," Gibson said. - Sapa

CAPE TOWN, South Africa, May 10 - Ousted Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide has officially asked South Africa for asylum until his personal situation "normalizes," the Foreign Affairs Ministry said Monday.

The ministry said in a statement that the request was made through the Caribbean Economic Community, or CARICOM, and Mozambique President Joaquin Chissano, who is the chairman of the African union.

Foreign Affairs Minister Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma said that she will take the request to the newly appointed Cabinet, which will conduct its first meeting later this week.

The South African government has always maintained that its approach to the Haitian question will be guided by the views and attitude of CARICOM and the African Union, she said in a statement.

Aristide's spokesman in Jamaica, Huntley Medley, declined to comment on the report.

"No other 'visitor' to South Africa would receive such 'personal' attention. Aristide's dilemma is not simply 'personal.' It is first and foremost a political matter," party spokesman Douglas Gibson said.

The request is the first official indication that Aristide intends to come to South Africa and follows months of speculation as to where he will seek refuge.

Aristide was ousted from power on Feb. 29 after a three-week armed revolt in the island nation.

He and his wife, Mildred, arrived in Jamaica on March 15 after a brief stay in the Central African Republic.

He has accused the United States of forcibly removing him from office. U.S. officials deny the charge.

Jamaica's decision to host Aristide angered the United States and Haiti's U.S.-back interim government, which said his return to the region could destabilize Haiti, just 100 miles to the east.

PORT-AU-PRINCE, May 7 (CP) - Canada will offer military and financial support to strife-torn Haiti but warned the interim government it won't tolerate seeing its contributions eaten up by corruption.

Foreign Affairs Minister Bill Graham led a delegation of three federal ministers to the Haitian capital Friday, where they met with interim prime minister Gerard Latortue and members of his government.

"We wanted to find out what are the real political problems in Haiti," Graham told a news conference in Port-au-Prince. "We know that we have to help rebuild the economy and have elections, but we wanted to know what is the political climate, and that we can only know by visiting Haiti."

The Canadians promised to follow up on existing military and humanitarian aid - but their pledge came with a caveat.

"We want our local counterparts to understand well that we need propitious political conditions on the island for this . . . aid to bear necessary fruit," Graham told Canadian reporters in a telephone conference.

"Nobody - the Americans, the French, ourselves or anybody else - has any intention of going down the road we went through in the '90s with the same results."

The new Haitian government accuses its predecessor of pilfering as much as $1 billion US in state funds since the 1990s.

"Just to drive around the streets, to see the garbage, to see the conditions in the streets, to realize that one has electricity in this city ... for only two hours a day on average and to talk to people about the state of the economy which has virtually ground to a halt," he said.

The Haitian government's revenues have plummeted and is struggling to pay its employees, Graham said. That has left police officers and judges ideal targets for corruption. "The state has not been able to function," he said.

Graham was accompanied by Denis Coderre, minister responsible for the francophonie, and by International Co-operation Minister Aileen Carroll.

Canada has made a modest contribution to the Caribbean country - 450 soldiers and almost $15 million since civil strife resulted in the overthrow of Jean-Bertrand Aristide in February.

About $10 million has gone to United Nations initiatives such as the World Food Program and more than $2 million went to non-governmental organizations involved mainly in rebuilding schools and improving hospitals.

"We are here to help for the long haul," said Coderre, whose home city of Montreal is home to about 120,000 Haitians and their descendants.

During the visit, Graham was also scheduled to visit Canadian troops deployed in Haiti.

Troops from India Company, 2nd Battalion, Royal Canadian Regiment based at CFB Gagetown, N.B., had delivered 20 desks a day earlier to a school in a Port-au-Prince slum as part of a humanitarian mission.

The Canadian ministers came to Haiti a week after Canada announced a two-month extension for the stay of its soldiers.

Canada is among four countries in the 3,700-member U.S.-led peacekeeping force in Haiti for three months ending June 1. The Canadian troops will now stay through Aug. 1, overlapping with a larger UN force and helping in the transition.

WASHINGTON, May 7 (AFP) - US Secretary of State Colin Powell said that the United States would provide impoverished Haiti and its interim government with at least 40 million dollars in addition assistance this year.

In an exclusive interview with AFP, Powell said he hoped to come close to doubling the 55 million dollars already allocated for Haiti in the current year by reallocating money initially intended for other programs.

"We have found at least another 40 (million dollars), and there may be more money that we'll find," he said.

Another State Department official said an additional 10 million dollars had been provisionally identified for Haiti which, if approved, would bring the amount of new assistance to 50 million dollars, and the total for 2004 to 105 million.

Wednesday, Powell had pledged that the United States would fully back Haiti's efforts to overcome from the political crisis it endured earlier this year when a rising insurrection, political opposition and international pressure forced former president Jean Bertrand Aristide from power.

"Haiti is in great need of financial support, other kinds of support," Powell said then after meeting Haiti's interim Prime Minister Gerard Latortue at the State Department. "I said to the prime minister that he can count on US support."

However, at the time, he had been unable to provide a specific amount and said his aides were "scrubbing the department" to find money for Haiti, prompting fears that other US obligations, particularly the war in Iraq, would dry up any additional assistance.

Since then, President George W. Bush has asked Congress for an additional 25 billion dollars for operations in Iraq and on Thursday the White House announced it would spend up to 59 million dollars over the next to years to hasten the political demise of Cuban President Fidel Castro.

Also Thursday, Haiti was disqualified from applying this year for any part of billions of dollars in new foreign aid under a new US program that rewards developing nations for economic and political reform.

To be eligible for money from the so-called Millenium Challenge Account -- expected to total five billion dollars by 2006 -- countries must demonstrate commitment to three standards: ruling justly, investing in their people and encouraging economic freedom.

Powell said in the interview that Haiti, because of its current political situation, was not now eligible for that money, but expressed optimism that it would meet the requirements in the coming years.

"I hope the day will come when Haiti is very competitive for the Millennium Challenge Account funding," he said.

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti, May 6 (Reuters) - More than 3,000 escaped convicts are running amok in Haiti threatening individuals and businesses, unrestrained by a U.S.-led multinational force meant to keep the peace, police and residents said on Thursday.

Jails were emptied and prisoners set free across the Caribbean country in February as an armed revolt swept out of the north toward Port-au-Prince, eventually forcing President Jean-Bertrand Aristide from power.

But now many who supported the rebels, such as businessmen, are paying the price and are being kidnapped, shot and robbed by bands of drug dealers and other criminals. "

Armed bandits visited me three times in two weeks and took away all the money I had," said Josue Jeanty, 50, a grocery store owner in the capital, where most of the 3,600 foreign troops led by U.S. Marines are on patrol. The U.S.-led force will be replaced by an 8,000-strong U.N. deployment in June.

"Should this situation continue, I'll have no choice but to close," he told Reuters on Thursday, calling on the interim, U.S.-backed government appointed after Aristide fled on Feb. 29, to recapture the criminals.

Before the rebellion erupted on Feb. 5, Haiti's prison population was 3,302, including 2,000 in the Port-au-Prince national penitentiary. But now not one remains behind bars.

Haiti's motley police force, dispirited even before the rebels and former soldiers drove them out of several northern towns, has been whittled down to fewer than 2,500 officers for a country of 8 million.

Several prominent businessmen and members of the wealthy elite have been kidnapped and held for ransom in recent weeks. Last month, the wife of the Bahamian ambassador, Eugene Newry, and her Royal Bahamas Police Force escort, were shot during a robbery attempt in a Port-au-Prince marketplace.

Heavily armed gangs regularly seize truckloads of goods in commercial districts in Port-au-Prince, and more than a dozen people have been killed in the past two weeks, witnesses said.

The situation has become so dire that the United Nations warned from Geneva this week that roadside hijackings and other crimes were threatening the distribution of humanitarian aid in the poorest country of the Americas.

Judicial police director, Inspector General Michael Lucius, said one escaped killer, Herold Bazile, whose street name is "One Bullet in the Head," had formed a gang that included criminal deportees from the United States.

"They are heavily armed, they hit every day. We have been trying to get them, but we haven't succeeded yet," Lucius told Reuters. He said the slum where the gang was based could not be entered by police without suffering high casualties.

WASHINGTON, May 5 (AFP) - US Secretary of State Colin Powell pledged US support for Haiti as the impoverished nation's interim prime minister appealed for aid after political violence that drove former president Jean Bertrand Aristide from power.

"Haiti is in great need of financial support, other kinds of support," Powell told reporters after meeting Gerard Latortue at the State Department. "I said to the prime minister that he can count on US support."

But with US expenditures rising in the rest of the world, notably in Iraq, and additional funds scarce, Powell acknowledged difficulties in coming up with short-term assistance and said money for Haiti this year would have to be transferred from other programs.

"For the moment, we're looking at all of the accounts that are available to us in the department to see what we might be able to transfer into support for Haiti ... we're really, really scrubbing the department," he said.

Powell could not give even a preliminary figure for what the United States might be able to contribute at an upcoming donors conference for Haiti, the poorest country in the Americas, but added that he expected to have an idea after the completion of a needs assessment by the World Bank.

Latortue, who is on a three-day trip to Washington, said he would visit the World Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank, the International Monetary Fund and US lawmakers to drum up backing for Haiti's reconstruction and his plans to hold elections next year.

"Haiti just went through very, very difficult times where the entire economic infrastructure has been almost destroyed. We are trying to rebuild confidence into the country," he said. "We are trying to bring good economic governance and we are trying also to bring democracy."

He noted that on Tuesday, a new electoral council had been installed that will oversee the 2005 polls, which are hoped to provide a boon to the country's stagnant economy.

"With good economic governance, Haiti might become in the years ahead a very big place for business opportunities," Latortue said afterwards at the annual meeting of the Association of American Chambers of Commerce in Latin America (AACCLA).

"The first to come will be certainly those who will make the highest profits," he told AACCLA members.

"So we do have a potential market that could be increased rapidly if more people come and invest in the country, create more jobs, generating more revenues and you might be surprised," Latortue said.

The interim premier will be travelling to Europe next week to seek support there ahead of the UN's scheduled June 1 takeover of a US-led international stabilization force that began immediately after Aristide's February 29 resignation and flight into exile.

The new UN mission, unanimously approved by the UN Security Council last week, will take over from that force on June 1 with a maximum of 6,700 soldiers and 1,622 civilian police.

Powell and State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said Washington was lobbying UN members to provide personnel for the Haiti peacekeeping force.

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti, May 5 - An early morning curfew in place in the capital since a presidential upheaval two months ago has been lifted. The midnight to 5 a.m. curfew was part of an effort to bring order to the violence-plagued city after then-President Jean-Bertrand Aristide fled during an armed uprising.

Police announced an end to the measure Tuesday night. Originally from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m., the curfew was shortened to five hours in recent weeks.

Still, Port-au-Prince residents complained about the restriction, as well as its enforcement by international peacekeeping forces, some calling it a symbol of a foreign occupation.

U.S. Marines Lt. Rob Goza said the lifting of the curfew will not change operations in the city.

The Marines make up the largest part of an international peacekeeping force maintaining order as Haiti's new government takes shape.

MIAMI, May 3 - (KRT) - Hoping to ensure that Haiti remains on the Bush administration's radar, Haitian Prime Minister Gerard Latortue will arrive in Washington Tuesday to sound the alarm on behalf of his government, which is facing a $100 million budget deficit.

ONE OF ARISTIDE's MAJOR ACCOMPLISHMENTS - A boy walks in front of a mountain of trash in downtown Port-au-Prince, Haiti Tuesday, May 4, 2004. In the rainy season rain showers sweep trash down from the mountainsides .(AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd) - Please see also: wehaitians com, an invaluable resource for ...

Among the stops on his packed agenda: A visit to the Organization of American States and meetings with top officials of the Bush administration, international financial institutions and the Congressional Black Caucus.

His goal, said aides in Haiti, is the same in all the stops: To discuss Haiti's security problems, secure millions of dollars in emergency cash to help shore up the government and lobby for passage of HERO, a trade bill that could produce hundreds of manufacturing jobs in the impoverished Caribbean nation.

"That is something we need right now - jobs, especially in the urban areas," interim Finance Minister Henri Bazin told The Miami Herald in a telephone interview. "I hope he will get some definitive commitments from the Bush administration for support of the HERO act."

Lionel Delatour, a Port-au-Prince, Haiti-based consultant who has been lobbying for HERO on behalf of Haiti's business community and will be in Washington during Latortue's visit, said passage of the legislation would help create about 100,000 jobs indirectly.

Sponsored by Rep. Clay Shaw, R-Fla., the legislation has 31 bipartisan co-sponsors. It is pending before the trade subcommittee of the House Ways and Means Committee.

"South Florida is on the front lines of the ongoing economic crisis in Haiti. We continue to see desperate people wash up on our shores because they can no longer see a future for themselves and their families in Haiti," Shaw said in an e-mail to The Herald.

"I believe this trade bill is a critical step forward in addressing the root causes of this hopelessness and desperation in our own hemisphere," he said. "I greatly look forward to working with Prime Minister Gerard Latortue this week on Capitol Hill and highlighting this legislation as an economic lifeline for Haiti."

Latortue, a former South Florida resident and retired economist, will highlight the importance of the HERO bill in a speech Wednesday during the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's Latin America and Caribbean Trade Forecast conference.

Latortue will end his visit to Capitol Hill on Friday morning and will be in South Florida on Saturday for a Herald-sponsored forum on Haiti's future.

MONDAY, May. 3 - Southbound traffic on Interstate 95 in Palm Beach Gardens was backed up for hours Monday morning after a cargo truck blew a tire and rolled over, spilling supplies and diesel fuel across the roadway.

Florida Highway Patrol troopers said the truck rolled over about 5:15 a.m. near the Military Trail exit, just north of PGA Boulevard.

Two southbound lanes were shut down for at least two hours, and traffic was backed up long after the crash as cars slowed to watch the cleanup alongside the road, FHP Lt. Tim Frith said. "The big problem is the onlookers that are going through there," Frith said. The truck's driver, Yvon Edmond, 42, of Orlando, was not injured in the crash. Edmond was transporting the supplies to ship to the impoverished nation of Haiti, and did not have money to pay for the cleanup. A local towing company, Kauff's, helped clean up the scene, salvaging unbroken supplies, and towed away the vehicle at no cost, according to state highway troopers. Troopers did not issue Edmond a ticket.

NILES, United States, May 3 (AFP) - US President George W. Bush (news - web sites) said he hoped US troops in Haiti will be able to turn over their responsibilities "relatively quickly" to UN peacekeepers.

"Our troops will stay there until the United Nations peacekeepers will move in, which we hope is relatively quickly," Bush said during a question-and-answer session in this electoral battleground state.

Rocked by a rebellion that drove president Jean Bertrand Aristide from power in February, Haiti has been bolstered by a contingent of international troops since his ouster.

The new UN mission, unanimously approved by the UN Security Council last week, will take over from that force on June 1 with a maximum of 6,700 soldiers and 1,622 civilian police.

MARTIN OUELLET, PARIS, May 3 (CP) - France and Quebec want to move the organization of francophone countries into a more active role on the world stage, such as helping to resolve the situation in Haiti, Premier Jean Charest said Monday.

"We're on the same wavelength," Charest said after a meeting with President Jacques Chirac. "Both of us see the possibility of la Francophonie helping in governance, in putting in place institutions."

Haiti was thrown into turmoil earlier this year when president Jean-Bertrand Aristide stepped aside amid rising pressure from opponents and the international community.

Charest made the comments after a 15-minute meeting with Chirac at the Elysee Palace.

Charest suggested the International Organization of la Francophonie, comprised of 50 government leaders from around the world, should be more than a select club of francophone and francophile countries that exerts little influence.

He said it would be in the organization's interest to become more involved but noted he isn't pushing for la Francophonie to take on powers to levy sanctions.

"The idea is to go to the aid of people who are in need," he said. Charest said it isn't up to la Francophonie to discipline countries that, for example, violate human rights.

Charest said he hopes the issue comes up at la Francophonie's next meeting this fall in Ouagadougou, the capital of Burkina Faso.

"We must respect the capacity of states to change their institutions," Charest said. "We can't impose on other states our ways of doing things, presuming they are identical to everyone else's."

Respect for human rights was on Charest's agenda when he met later with Abdou Diouf, secretary general of la Francophonie.

Chirac promised the French government would participate in the 400th anniversary of the founding of Quebec City in 2008 but did not commit to a specific project.

Quebec City Mayor Jean-Paul L'Allier has said he wants France to contribute funds to build a giant staircase linking the upper and lower sections of the historic city but Charest said that didn't come up on Monday. Charest said he did get Chirac's support to bring the annual meeting of la Francophonie to Quebec City in 2008.

"The mood of the electorate is always changing and we'll be judged at the end of the mandate," he told a TV interviewer. "For us, that's in four years."

He said he remains committed to following his plans to revamp the way the Quebec government operates.

From a political perspective, Haiti does not carry the significance of Iraq when it comes to foreign policy issues in the fight for the White House. But in one state, Haiti takes on outsized importance. And that state just happens to be the crucial one of Florida, a fact that makes how President Bush handles the present situation — and how Democrats respond — of critical interest. "This government believes it essential that Haiti have a hopeful future," Mr. Bush said on Sunday as he dispatched a small group of marines to the island.

Both the Democratic presidential contenders and members of Congress accused Mr. Bush of waiting too long. "We should have been engaged over a long period of time in a serious way, at least through diplomacy, not to allow this to get to a crisis situation where it now is," Senator John Edwards said in the New York debate with his fellow candidates in Tuesday's Democratic primaries.

Democrats, particularly members of the Congressional Black Caucus, have long accused Republican administrations of treating Haitians unfairly when compared with Cuban refugees and failing to give Haiti sufficient attention. The unfolding events renewed those complaints. "We are just as much a part of this coup d'état as the rebels, as the looters, or anyone else," Representative Charles Rangel, Democrat of New York, said on ABC's "This Week" with George Stephanopoulos, as he assailed the administration for not dispatching troops to support President Jean—Bertrand Aristide.

One factor that was no doubt driving the Bush administration's thinking was the image of a tide of Haitian refugees arriving on Florida's shores just months before the election, a scenario that would not meet with the approval of many Florida voters or the president's brother, Gov. Jeb Bush. The Coast Guard made it a point a few days ago to return hundreds of Haitians found at sea to both reassure people in Florida and try to keep Haitians from trying to make the often dangerous passage.

Senator Bob Graham, a Florida Democrat long involved in both Haitian and Cuban issues, said the Bush administration now has a responsibility to stay in Haiti and make sure the transition is smooth rather than pulling out too soon as he said the Clinton administration did a decade ago. "We didn't stay long enough to ensure stability, and we didn't make a deep enough commitment to rebuilding the Haitian economy," Mr. Graham said.

The poorer, more fragmented Haitian community in South Florida has never had anything resembling the political clout of the Cuban community. But its numbers are growing and its members are certainly monitoring developments in the Caribbean as well as Washington. And in Florida, as recent experience demonstrated, just a few votes can make a difference.

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The Security Council on Friday approved creation of a new U.N. peacekeeping mission in Haiti to take over the task of restoring stability from a U.S.-led multinational force on June 1.

The United Nations Security Council votes in New York, Friday, April 30, 2004. The Security Council authorized a wide-ranging U.N. mission in Haiti Friday with more than 8,000 troops and police, as well as political and human rights experts to help stabilize the troubled Caribbean nation. (AP Photo/Ed Bailey) - Please see also: Demonizing fat in the war on weight / Darwin-free fun for creationists / 'The anatomy of fascism': The original axis of evil

A resolution adopted unanimously by the 15-nation council authorized deployment of up to 6,700 U.N. troops and as many as 1,622 civilian police in the impoverished and chronically unstable Caribbean nation, in line with the recommendations of U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan.

While Annan asked for a two-year mandate for the new force in hopes of demonstrating a long-term commitment to Haiti, the council approved the force for just six months "with the intention to renew for further periods."

The move reflected council efforts to keep its soaring peacekeeping budget under a tighter rein, diplomats said.

With just a month to assemble it, some diplomats suggested it might be hard to come up with enough troops.

White House spokesman Scott McClellan said, however, that "a number of countries" had already agreed to participate, though he offered no specifics.

Chile's U.N. ambassador, Heraldo Munoz, predicted nations in Latin America and elsewhere would help out.

"I trust that we will have the troops," he told reporters. "I hope that with this (resolution), we will be there for the long haul and not lose patience, as we have in the past."

Brazil hopes to lead the mission's military component, a Foreign Ministry spokesman said.

The council approved a short-term deployment of the U.S.-led force -- which now numbers around 3,700 troops -- on Feb. 29, after President Jean-Bertrand Aristide fled under pressure from the international community as an armed rebellion threatened the capital Port-au-Prince.

The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reported on Thursday that the U.S.-led force had helped improve security but was limited by its small size.

Haiti was still volatile and crime was on the rise, it said, noting that Washington sent in 20,000 troops in 1994 to restore Aristide to power after a coup.

Aristide, who complained after leaving Haiti two months ago that he was forced out of power by the United States and France, is currently in Jamaica. A condition of his stay was to refrain from activity that would appear to set the stage for a return to power.

But in Port-au-Prince on Thursday, Aristide supporters demanded the international community allow him to return.

"The U.S. has no right to kidnap our president. We want Aristide back here in the flesh," Lesly Gustave, a spokesman for the "Little Church" community, told a news conference.

The United States has denied charges that Aristide was forced out in a "political kidnapping." The new U.N. force, to be called the U.N. Stabilization Mission in Haiti, aims to enable a return to democracy in a secure and stable environment, the council said. Free and fair municipal, parliamentary and presidential elections should be held "at the earliest possible date," it said.

The mission is authorized to help the transitional government now in place to take weapons away from armed groups, protect human rights, restructure the national police and restore public order across the country, the council said.

About 25,000 Haitians have weapons, said a survey by the Organization of American States and U.N. Development Program.

KINGSTON, Jamaica, Apr 29 (EFE).- There will be no meeting between former Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide and Haitian refugees staying here, a Jamaican government official confirmed Thursday.

Several of the 461 Haitian refugees in Jamaica had requested through Aristide’s media officer, Huntley Medley, that the former president meet with them to discuss the situation in their troubled homeland.

"Mr. Aristide has declined the invitation. He is not interested in such a meeting," Medley said in a statement.

Aristide, who is a guest of the Jamaican government until he finds permanent asylum in a non-Caribbean country, had been told by Jamaica that he should maintain a low profile and not get involved in activities that would give the impression he was seeking to return to political office in his homeland, officials said.

With Jamaica facing a growing problem of the influx of refugees, the government has confirmed that it had asked external agencies, including the United Nations, for support.

The government has already moved 66 refugees to a former army camp in the western city of Montego Bay, while alternative accommodation is being sought to house the entire group in more comfortable surroundings.

Security Ministry officials have confirmed that 204 of the 461 Haitians have already applied for political asylum in Jamaica.

Officials said that 22 had said that they did not wish to remain here and would go back to Haiti soon after things had settled down there.