No Welcome Wagon For Aristide

Haiti's new premier warned Friday that ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide's planned return to the Caribbean could threaten moves to stabilize the country still in turmoil two weeks after its leader's controversial flight and a monthlong popular rebellion.

Gerard Latortue told pro-Aristide politicians that he wants to hold legislative elections in six to eight months, Cabinet Minister Leslie Voltaire said of what looked like a rush to resolve the political crisis underlying Haiti's latest conflicts.

U.S. Marines came under fire at an industrial park producing garments for American companies and gunmen shot up a nearby car dealership, the U.S.-led peacekeeping force reported Friday.

The overnight gunfire came after a shootout erupted in front of the presidential National Palace on Thursday between police and protesters demanding Aristide's return.

Two young men were killed and 11 others suffered shotgun wounds, doctors said.

Radio stations reported a taxi driver was allegedly decapitated by angry Aristide militants. There was no immediate confirmation of those reports.

The U.S. State Department warned Americans not to travel to Haiti because of "the potential for looting, roadblocks set by armed gangs, and violent crime.

"Even within Port-au-Prince, travel remains extraordinarily dangerous," it said.

Latortue told reporters that Aristide is no longer Haiti's leader, dampening speculation that the trip to neighboring Jamaica might lead to negotiations for the return of Aristide, who insists he remains Haiti's legitimate president.

Aristide's return "could be a threat to stability in Haiti," he said.

Latortue criticized Jamaica for inviting the deposed leader, and said he told Prime Minister P.J. Patterson that "having former President Aristide in Jamaica, so close, is in our view ... an unfriendly act."

In telephone conversations, Patterson told him Aristide was visiting Jamaica "because he had no other place to go," Latortue said. That confirmed some countries' reluctance to be embroiled in the diplomatic fallout from Aristide's charges that Haiti's democratically elected president was abducted by the United States and forced from office.

U.S. officials say Aristide asked for help and that they saved his life by arranging his departure.

Aristide has been reluctantly hosted by the Central African Republic, where he was carried on a U.S.-chartered aircraft after he fled Haiti on Feb. 29 as rebels prepared to attack Port-au-Prince and U.S. and French ministers urged him to resign.

But his African hosts made clear they were providing only a temporary asylum, as Jamaica did Thursday.

Patterson said Aristide would visit, with his wife Mildred, for eight to 10 weeks to be reunited with their two young daughters, who were sent to New York City for their safety. Foreign Minister K.D. Knight said Aristide had been told not to use Jamaica as a launchpad for any desire to be reinstated in Haiti.

Patterson also said that Latortue would visit Jamaica next week, for talks with him in his capacity as chairman of the 15-nation Caribbean Community to which Haiti belongs. Latortue said if he did "it will be before he (Aristide) is there."

A Caribbean summit in Jamaica last week called for a U.N. investigation into the circumstances of Aristide's departure, a call echoed Wednesday by the 53-nation African Union, which said Aristide's removal was "unconstitutional."

From Africa, Aristide has urged his followers to offer "peaceful resistance" to the U.S. "occupation."

The shadow of the diminutive Aristide, who came to power with fiery rhetoric about ending misery and uplifting the poor, continued to hang over the country even as Latortue indicated he would move quickly to appoint a transitional Cabinet and government to organize balloting to install an elected legislature.

Latortue was to be sworn in as premier Friday.

Earlier he reassured politicians from Aristide's Lavalas Family that they wold be part of the transitional government to be formed under a U.S.-backed plan, Voltaire said.

"The opposition is trying to say that Lavalas doesn't exist anymore, and it shouldn't participate," Voltaire complained

He said he believes Lavalas continues to command majority support "because it is the party of the poor."

Aristide was wildly popular when he became Haiti's first freely elected leader in 1990, but he lost support as misery deepened and violence increased.

The opposition in elections would be drawn from the Democratic Platform coalition that united against Aristide but includes disparate groups from right-leaning coup supporters to liberal rights activists.

Latortue, 69, a U.N. career officer and business consultant who arrived in Haiti on Wednesday after years in exile in Florida, has said disarmament and reconciliation are his priorities.

On Friday, U.S. Marines trained their rifles on workers and checked identity papers at the industrial park near the international airport, acting on reports gunmen were planning to confiscate paychecks.

The complex was attacked by looters this week and at least one woman was wounded as security guards fired to chase away the thieves.

But workers were not happy: "We came here to work and we were forced to duck our heads below these Americans' rifles," said Myracia Batraville, 42, who makes 70 gourdes ($1.70) a day sewing T-shirts bound for J.C. Penney Co.

Marines said they came under fire at the complex Thursday night, but there were no injuries.

Nearby, they inspected damage at a Toyota dealership shot up by gunmen overnight. Show windows were shattered and walls pockmarked with gunshots.

To promote security, Latortue wants his Cabinet to include retired army Chief of Staff Herard Abraham, who supports recreating Haiti's disgraced and disbanded army, a key rebel demand.

Disarming Haiti's many factions will be the biggest challenge, and Latortue stressed the need for cooperation from some 2,600 peacekeepers from the United States, France and Chile. Canada plans to send 85 soldiers on Friday, the vanguard of a planned contingent of 450.