Haiti

Haiti's agenda: how to end terror

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti - Haiti's new Cabinet met for the first time Wednesday to discuss the urgent need to disarm gunmen in a nation terrorized by rebels, street gangs and escaped convicts despite thousands of U.S.-led peacekeepers.

Haitian police officers are among those accused of fueling the turmoil, with a report Wednesday that five officers have been detained on suspicion of killing five supporters of ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide's party.

The National Coalition for Haitian Rights said that according to relatives of the victims, the officers rounded up and executed the men, ages 17 to 24, over the weekend. The officers were detained Monday, but no charges had been filed.

Police have also been accused of brutalizing opponents of Aristide, who fled the country Feb. 29 as a three-week rebellion neared Port-au-Prince, the capital. Scores of police were among more than 300 people killed in the revolt; hundreds fled before the rebels, who torched police stations and freed thousands of convicts.

A month later, rebels remain armed and in charge in Haiti's three largest cities outside the capital, while some smaller towns are under the sway of street gangs and convicts.

In Les Cayes, on the southeast peninsula, gangs carried out a public execution Monday, U.N. relief worker Fernando Arroyo told the Associated Press.

A 14-year-old boy caught stealing was chased by a mob, which dragged him before an improvised jury that ordered him shot to death, Arroyo said.

An AP reporter watched rebel leader Louis-Jodel Chamblain, a convicted assassin, acting as judge this week in the northern port of Cap-Haitien, where Aristide supporters and French peacekeepers say bodies still are appearing in the bay.

Chamblain holds court despite the arrival last week of 150 French troops and the return of about 50 police officers.

Arroyo said the "still chaotic" situation was stifling access for aid workers.

While officials of the U.S.-backed interim government and the U.S.-led peacekeeping force agree on the urgency for disarmament, little is being done.

U.S. Marine Maj. Richard Crusan said troops had collected 67 weapons since they began disarming residents a week ago.

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