US troops to take on Haitian thugs

PRESIDENT Bill Clinton said yesterday that the United States would protect Haitian civilians from attacks by Haitian troops. The US is sending about 1,000 military police to the island to intervene in extreme cases.

In the first manifestation of the new policy, US forces last night began dismantling Haiti's small and near-obsolete heavy weaponry, and started mobile patrols into the countryside outside the capital.

The day after American troops watched Haitian police club a man to death, Lieutenant-General Hugh Shelton, the US commander, met the Haitian military commander, Lieutenant-General Raoul Cedras, and told him such brutality was unacceptable.

'Our armed forces cannot and will not become Haiti's police force,' Mr Clinton told reporters in Washington. 'But they can work to see that the Haitian military and police operate in a responsible and professional manner.' Human rights organisations contend that the Haitian armed forces, which are believed to control the death squads, are unreformable.

It is unclear how far the US troops will change their rules of engagement. But the administration will suffer severe political damage if the 8,000 US soldiers now on the island stand idly by while supporters of the exiled President, Jean- Bertrand Aristide, are attacked. Mr Clinton said UN human rights monitors are to return to Haiti.

The struggle for power in Haiti is likely to intensify with the announcement by Fr Aristide yesterday that he will return to the island on 15 October. This is the same day that Gen Cedras is due to step down.

''In less than 24 days I will join you in Haiti,' said Fr Aristide from the Pentagon, where he was being briefed by the Defense Secretary, William Perry, and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General John Shalikashvili. Mr Perry said that in future the military police would oversee the Haitian police and 'ensure they do not use unreasonable force'. A quick reaction force will also be created to prevent any 'general breakdown of order'.

Although Fr Aristide is totally reliant on the US for his restoration, the White House also badly needed his endorsement. This they got in an eloquent speech in which the Haitian leader said: 'President Clinton - this is the result of your leadership.'

Why the US is in Haiti, page 12

Leading article, page 15