Haiti's advisory council named an interim prime minister to pave the way for elections, while US Marines said they would start helping disarm the general population in a potentially volatile move after weeks of bloodshed.
Militants demanding ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide's return stoned cars and set barricades ablaze on Tuesday, blocking a main road in the capital and threatening renewed turmoil.
The new prime minister, Gerard Latortue, a former UN official and foreign minister, faces the difficult task of helping to restore peace in this troubled Caribbean nation following a monthlong insurgency that helped drive Aristide from power on Feb. 29. Rebels had seized control of half the country, sparking a frenzy of looting and violence. More than 400 people have died in the rebellion and reprisal killings.
Latortue, who lives in Florida, said his main priorities as prime minister would be security, justice, jobs and national reconciliation.
"I feel very happy that a chance is given to me to participate in the reconstruction of Haiti after all those years of bad governance," he told the south Florida Sun Sentinel newspaper in an interview published yesterday. "I hope I will be able to assemble Haitians from all political parties and social groups to make Haiti a country all Haitians will be proud to be from.
"I think Aristide is already the past," he added. "Now we're looking ahead at building Haiti after the disaster of the Aristide regime."
US Colonel Charles Gurganus told reporters in Port-au-Prince that a joint disarmament program with Haitian police was to begin yesterday. He called on Haitians to tell peacekeepers who has weapons and to turn in any arms, but he gave few details of how the program will work.
"The disarmament will be both active and reactive, but I'm not going to say any more about that," he said.
Rebel groups and Aristide loyalists have threatened violence if weapons aren't taken away from their enemies.
Since the US- and French-led peacekeepers arrived a week ago, there has been confusion over who is in charge of disarming groups. On Monday, Gurganus said disarming rebels was not part of the peacekeepers' mission, but he indicated that could change if police asked for help.
After five days of private meetings, the seven-member Council of Sages settled on Latortue, who also worked as an international business consultant in Miami.
Beijing’s continued provocations in the Taiwan Strait reveal its intention to unilaterally change the “status quo” in the area, the US Department of State said on Saturday, calling for a peaceful resolution to cross-strait issues. The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) reported that four China Coast Guard patrol vessels entered restricted and prohibited waters near Kinmen County on Friday and again on Saturday. A State Department spokesperson said that Washington was aware of the incidents, and urged all parties to exercise restraint and refrain from unilaterally changing the “status quo.” “Maintaining peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait is in line with our [the
EXTENDED RANGE: Hsiung Sheng missiles, 100 of which might be deployed by the end of the year, could reach Chinese command posts and airport runways, a source said A NT$16.9 billion (US$534.93 million) project to upgrade the military’s missile defense systems would be completed this year, allowing the deployment of at least 100 long-range Hsiung Sheng missiles and providing more deterrence against China, military sources said on Saturday. Hsiung Sheng missiles are an extended-range version of the Hsiung Feng IIE (HF-2E) surface-to-surface cruise missile, and are believed to have a range of up to 1,200km, which would allow them to hit targets well inside China. They went into mass production in 2022, the sources said. The project is part of a special budget for the Ministry of National Defense aimed at
READY TO WORK: Taiwan is eager to cooperate and is hopeful that like-minded states will continue to advocate for its inclusion in regional organizations, Lai said Maintaining the “status quo” in the Taiwan Strait, and peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific region must be a top priority, president-elect William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday after meeting with a delegation of US academics. Leaders of the G7, US President Joe Biden and other international heads of state have voiced concerns about the situation in the Strait, as stability in the region is necessary for a safe, peaceful and prosperous world, Lai said. The vice president, who is to be inaugurated in May, welcomed the delegation and thanked them for their support for Taiwan and issues concerning the Strait. The international community
COOPERATION: Two crewmembers from a Chinese fishing boat that sank off Kinmen were rescued, two were found dead and another two were still missing at press time The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) was yesterday working with Chinese rescuers to find two missing crewmembers from a Chinese fishing boat that sank southwest of Kinmen County yesterday, killing two crew. The joint operation managed to rescue two of the boat’s six crewmembers, but two were already dead when they were pulled from the water, the agency said in a statement. Rescuers are still searching for two others from the Min Long Yu 61222, a boat registered in China’s Fujian Province that capsized and sank 1.03 nautical miles (1.9km) southwest of Dongding Island (東碇), it added. CGA Director-General Chou Mei-wu (周美伍) told a