Haiti Swears In New Cabinet

Haiti's new U.S.-backed Cabinet was installed Wednesday without a single member of ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide's Lavalas Family party, setting the stage for a showdown at home and with already antagonized Caribbean leaders.

Several Haitian politicians complained that the new government unfairly excluded several political groups including Lavalas, Haiti's largest party, after Prime Minister Gerard Latortue promised it would be represented.

At the National Palace, Latortue handed the Cabinet letters of appointment and then apologized for past governments.

"I feel obliged to ask you for forgiveness for all that the other governments have done," he said.

And he defended his choice of Cabinet members, saying: "This is a government of transition. It is a way of showing that it is possible to govern this country differently and to create a new relationship between the state and its people ... This is a government that is nonpartisan, and I invite everyone to judge it by its results."

The ceremony came as French peacekeepers began the dangerous task of disarming slum strongholds of the ousted Jean-Bertrand Aristide, hoping to succeed where U.S. troops failed in a similar campaign 10 years ago.

"We're giving our guns up right now but if Aristide doesn't come back we'll fight with machetes," said one armed militant, Robert Mackinson.

Aristide's return Monday from exile in the Central African Republic to temporary asylum in Jamaica is souring relations between Haiti and the rest of the Caribbean even as it gives Aristide's followers hope.

Secretariat officials of the 15-member Caribbean Community said leaders would discuss whether to recognize Haiti's interim government at a summit March 25-26 in St. Kitts.

They said Caribbean leaders would address the fact that the new Cabinet has no Lavalas members, and said that was being considered a major mistake.

Latortue on Monday said he was recalling Haiti's ambassador to Jamaica and suspending diplomatic relations with Jamaica and membership in the economic bloc.

The interim government is supposed to steer this Caribbean nation, divided between enemies and supporters of Aristide, to legislative elections within eight months. Haiti has been in crisis since flawed 2000 legislative elections swept by Lavalas.

Aristide fled on Feb. 29 as a three-week rebellion threatened Port-au-Prince.

Aristide claims he was forced to leave office, and Haiti, by the United States. Washington insists he resigned before the bloody insurrection led by a street gang and former army officers could engulf the capital.

Regional officials of the Caribbean Community, which has demanded an international investigation into Aristide's claims, had been lobbying for Aristide to come to the summit to describe what happened. But spokesman Leonard Robertson said the community wants Aristide to keep to his pledge not to engage in political activity during his temporary asylum in Jamaica.

Under a U.S.-backed plan, Latortue was chosen to return home from decades in exile in Florida, and came to Haiti last week promising to bring Lavalas into his government and to help reconcile the country.

His Cabinet included lawyer Bernard Gousse as justice minister, business leader Henri Bazin as finance minister and former Gen. Herard Abraham as interior minister. While the 13 Cabinet members don't belong to any political party, the majority have been critical of Aristide and are considered allied with his opposition.

Politicians from both sides criticized the process, saying their candidates were rejected without explanation.0

Opposition leader Evans Paul, a former Port-au-Prince mayor, said that while "the people chosen are good ... the process is not transparent."

"It's more of a personal government of Latortue than a real government of consensus," Paul said.

"You cannot call this a government of national unity," Mischa Gaillard, of the opposition Convergence coalition, said on Radio Vision 2000.

Yvon Neptune, Latortue's predecessor, warned that locking Lavalas out of the government risked further polarizing the nation of 8 million.

Aristide and party leaders have lost support as corruption flourished alongside poverty and they reacted to opposition by using police and militants to attack opponents.

Canada was sending 170 more soldiers to Haiti on Wednesday, joining more than 2,600 U.S., French and Chilean troops.

The peacekeepers launched a nationwide disarmament campaign with a small ceremony in the vast harbor-side slum of Cite Soleil, an event marked by residents' demands that Aristide return.

Still, they handed over more than 50 assault rifles, pistols and shotguns to a small convoy of French troops accompanied by Haitian police. Two French helicopters circled overhead.

"This is the people's initiative," said Col. Daniel LePlatois. "We're hoping that all the slums will adopt the same position."

"The incentive for us is that we're hoping Jean-Bertrand Aristide will return," said 25-year-old Jondek Chery as he surrendered a submachine gun. "But if not, we'd rather have (foreign troops) here than the former army."

The French presence Wednesday -- open-top jeeps, no helmets -- was in marked contrast to heavily armed U.S. patrols in downtown Belair, where Marines have traded fire with gunmen. Six Haitians have been killed and one Marine wounded in Belair.

A U.N. peacekeeping force is to take over in three months, and Brazil has offered its leadership and 1,100 troops.

A decade ago, disarmament under 20,000 American troops included roadblocks, seizing armories, and buying arms. New Police Chief Leon Charles said that wouldn't work this time.

"If we did that again, the money we would give people for their weapons they would just use to go out and buy another weapon," Charles said. "Expectations have to be met this time. I don't think they'll cooperate with disarmament until they feel safe."

By Paisley Dodds