- Title: HAITI: HAITI'S NEW INTERIM PRIME MINISTER ARRIVES FROM THE UNITED STATES
- Date: 10th March 2004
- Summary: (W8) PORT-AU-PRINCE, HAITI (MARCH 10, 2004) (REUTERS) 1. SLV/SV OF PLANE CARRYING INTERIM PRIME MINISTER OF HAITI, GERARD LATORTUE ARRIVING (2 SHOTS) 0.15 2. LV DELEGATION WALKING TO MEET LATORTUE 0.27 3. LV/SV OF LATORTUE GETTING OF PLANE AND GREETING WELL-WISHERS (3 SHOTS) 0.51 4. SV OF NEWS CONFERENCE 0.57 5. MCU (English) INTERIM PRIME MINISTER OF HAITI, GERARD LATORTUE SAYING "I want to say that the top priority would be the security problem and I would like to see the foreign troops here cooperate with the national police to help us disarm all those who have illegal arms in their hands and we hope the Secretary-General of the UN (United Nations) or the U.S. government or the French government will understand that they have to participate actively in that process." 1.24 6. SV OF NEWS CONFERENCE 1.28 7. MCU (Creole) LATORTUE SAYING "That's what we want to give the population jobs, food. At this time if they have jobs, justice, security from this time to now they will have something to do. They are not going to take the streets with the signs to shout against somebody." 1.42 8. SLV/SV/MCU OF COUNCIL OF "WISE MEN" WAITING FOR LATORTUE AT AIRPORT (4 SHOTS) 1.55 9. LAS OF MOTORCADE ARRIVING 2.01 10. SV LATORTUE ARRIVING AT HOTEL 2.18 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
- Embargoed: 25th March 2004 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: PORT-AU-PRINCE, HAITI
- Country: Haiti
- Reuters ID: LVAC15U2AEJLLK6QE43RAA1ILIOZ
- Story Text: Haiti's new Prime Minister arrives from the United
States.
Haiti's new interim prime minister arrived in his
revolt-torn country on Wednesday (March 10) and promised
Haitians he would work to improve security and justice and
provide more jobs.
Gerard Latortue, a former U.N. official and foreign
minister, was picked on Tuesday (March 09) by a council of
"wise men" charged with steering the Caribbean country
toward political stability after a month-long armed revolt
that forced President Jean-Bertrand Aristide into exile.
Latortue, who takes over as prime minister until
elections can be held, flew to Port-au-Prince on Wednesday
from Florida, where he had been living.
In comments to reporters at the airport, he urged
national reconciliation. He added his priorities were to
improve security and justice, to get help from the
international community to professionalise the police
force, and provide more jobs for the country's legions of
poor.
Outside, Haitian police in full black battle gear with
helmets lined the front of the airport.
Aristide went to Africa on Feb. 29 as rebels closed in
on the capital, leaving behind shooting and looting in the
chaotic city. A U.S.-led foreign peace force that now
numbers 2,300 arrived soon after to help restore order in
the poorest country in the Americas.
"We would like the foreign troops here, in cooperation
with the National Police, to help us disarm," said Latortue.
Latortue, 69, was expected to be sworn in, replacing
Aristide appointee Yvon Neptune, and to select a Cabinet
during the course of the week.
He said he might set up a committee to study whether
Haiti should again create an army, a key demand of the
former soldiers who joined the armed revolt that swept
Aristide from power. Aristide disbanded the army after he
returned to Office in 1994, having been overthrown in a
coup three years earlier.
The new prime minister is an economist and a former
senior official of the United Nations Industrial
Development Organization. He was Haitian foreign minister
under President Leslie Manigat, and left Haiti when Manigat
was overthrown in a 1988 military coup.
He had been living in Florida, working as a business
consultant and hosting a twice-weekly television talk show
on the Haitian Television Network in Miami.
More than 200 people have been killed in the revolt that
began on Feb. 5 and capped months of simmering political
tensions in the country of 8 million people.
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