Haiti installed a new US-backed government that didn't include former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide's party despite the prime minister's pledge to include it.
Critics complained Prime Minister Gerard Latortue unfairly excluded Aristide's Lavalas Family party, the country's largest. Latortue had said that Lavalas would participate in a post-Aristide government.
The opposition Convergence coalition also was excluded.
"This is a government that is nonpartisan, and I invite everyone to judge it by its results," Latortue said Wednesday at a National Palace ceremony.
He promised fast action on organizing legislative elections and combatting corruption.
US Ambassador James Foley said "Latortue chose wisely" and that Haiti could expect significant US and international aid.
"I do think that the situation will stabilize, which is remarkable given the complete breakdown ... a virtual state of anarchy," he said.
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. He arrived in Jamaica Monday to reunite with his daughters -- despite Latortue's protests that Aristide's proximity could stir unrest among his supporters in Haiti.
Aristide claims he was forced out under US pressure. Washington insists he resigned before the bloody insurrection led by a street gang and former army officers could engulf the capital.
Aristide and party leaders lost support as corruption flourished alongside poverty. They reacted by using police and militants to attack opponents.
Officials of the 15-member Caribbean Community said leaders would discuss whether to recognize Latortue's government at a summit on March 25. The economic bloc has demanded an international investigation into Aristide's claims he didn't resign.
The new defense minister, General Herard Abraham, told the AP that a Haitian army could help a multinational force disarm the population.
Abraham said a commission will study how to recreate the army -- a corrupt and brutal force before Aristide disbanded it in 1995.
"With the instability and the amount of guns that are spread around the country, we need a force that can proceed with disarmament," Abraham said.
Canada sent 170 more soldiers to Haiti on Wednesday, joining more than 2,600 US, French and Chilean troops.
The peacekeepers launched a nationwide disarmament campaign with a ceremony in the vast harbor-side slum of Cite Soleil -- an event marked by residents' demands that Aristide return.
Residents handed over more than 50 assault rifles, pistols and shotguns to a small convoy of French troops accompanied by Haitian police.
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
Japan unveiled a plan on Thursday to evacuate around 120,000 residents and tourists from its southern islets near Taiwan within six days in the event of an “emergency”. The plan was put together as “the security situation surrounding our nation grows severe” and with an “emergency” in mind, the government’s crisis management office said. Exactly what that emergency might be was left unspecified in the plan but it envisages the evacuation of around 120,000 people in five Japanese islets close to Taiwan. China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has stepped up military pressure in recent years, including
UNREST: The authorities in Turkey arrested 13 Turkish journalists in five days, deported a BBC correspondent and on Thursday arrested a reporter from Sweden Waving flags and chanting slogans, many hundreds of thousands of anti-government demonstrators on Saturday rallied in Istanbul, Turkey, in defence of democracy after the arrest of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu which sparked Turkey’s worst street unrest in more than a decade. Under a cloudless blue sky, vast crowds gathered in Maltepe on the Asian side of Turkey’s biggest city on the eve of the Eid al-Fitr celebration which started yesterday, marking the end of Ramadan. Ozgur Ozel, chairman of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), which organized the rally, said there were 2.2 million people in the crowd, but
RSS