Marines To Disarm Haitian Rebels

Loyalists demanding the return of exiled President Jean-Bertrand Aristide set up flaming barricades and stoned cars Tuesday, and the U.S. Marines said they will begin helping Haitian police disarm rebel groups.

A U.S.-backed advisory council picked Gerard Latortue, a former U.N. official and international business consultant, as Haiti's new prime minister on Tuesday, two leading opposition politicians told The Associated Press. The news was also reported on Haitian radio stations.

"The appointment of Gerald Latortue signals the importance of the U.N. role in restoring Haiti to democracy," said CBS News Foreign Affairs Analyst Pamela Falk, "and the speed of the appointment is a statement that the nation as a whole will at least try to move forward."

Also, the U.S. military announced a second death caused by American Marines, who, with French Legionnaires, form the vanguard of a U.N. peacekeeping mission.

Efforts to bring calm to this troubled Caribbean nation followed a bloody insurgency that ousted Aristide on Feb. 29, put rebels in control of half the country and sparked a frenzy of looting and violence. At least 130 people were killed in the rebellion; reprisal killings since Aristide's ouster have left at least 300 dead.

The announcement Tuesday that the Marines will begin helping disarm rebel groups is a tall order in a country where all sides are threatening to resume the rebellion.

Marine Col. Charles Gurganus called on Haitians to tell peacekeepers who has weapons and to turn in arms. "The disarmament will be both active and reactive, but I'm not going to say any more about that," he said, giving few details.

Gurganus said Haitian police will lead disarmament efforts, but starting Wednesday, peacekeepers will assist in getting "the weapons off the street."

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said Tuesday that he hopes the international community will have the patience and stamina necessary to commit to Haiti "for the long haul."

"It's going to take time, it's going to take lots of hard work," he told the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. "And we should not expect to do a Band-Aid job for two years or so, and then turn around and leave, only to have to return."

The U.N. resident representative in Haiti, Adama Guindo, said Tuesday he was working with U.S. Marines to devise a disarmament plan.

In the worst violence since Aristide left, gunmen opened fire on anti-Aristide protesters Sunday, killing six people and wounding more than 30. U.S. Marines said they killed one gunman.

Late Monday, Marines shot and killed the driver of a car speeding toward a checkpoint. A passenger was wounded.

Marine spokesman Sgt. Tiimothy Edwards said the body of the driver killed Monday night was turned over to the Red Cross.

But a body remained near the checkpoint area on Port-au-Prince's main road on Tuesday morning, and a man who said his cousin had been shot and killed by Marines identified it as that of Mutial Telusma.

The cousin, Jean-Claude Batiste, said Telusma had picked up his brother, Sedelin Telusma, from his work at the airport around 8 p.m. and was driving home at high speed, which is normal in Haiti.

"The road was blocked and he didn't know, just kept going and he was shot," Batiste told the AP, recounting the story from Sedelin Telusma, who was being treated for two gunshot wounds.

Hijackings and robberies have been common at roadblocks since Haiti's uprising began. Motorists - including journalists - often speed through checkpoints to avoid attacks by pro-Aristide militants and rebels.

In Washington, the Pentagon said Marines in both incidents were acting within orders.

"An individual Marine ... has an absolute right to defend himself and those around him," said Marine Gen. Peter Pace, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

U.S. forces in Haiti, about 1,600 strong, have limits on their powers: They cannot stop looting, even of American companies, nor can they use force to halt Haitian-on-Haitian violence.

Their mission is to protect key sites, like government buildings and the airport, and to pave the way for the U.N. force.

Also Tuesday, a Caribbean foreign minister voiced continuing regional suspicion about the circumstances of Aristide's departure. Now in exile in the Central African Republic, Aristide insists he is still Haiti's president and that he was abducted and forced to leave by the United States.

"We hold the United States responsible for the removal of the Haitian president," said Louis Straker, foreign minister for St. Vincent and the Grenadines, a member of the 15-nation Caribbean Community that last week called for an international investigation into Aristide's departure.

In an interview Monday with National Public Radio, Secretary of State Colin Powell again denied that Washington forced out Aristide, saying U.S. troops saved his life.

Aristide "contacted our ambassador," Powell said, "and our ambassador made appropriate arrangements so that he could leave safely, which many people said we should make sure would happen -- that nothing would happen to him. And he left of his own free will."

U.S. State Department spokesman Richard Boucher insisted that Aristide had voluntarily resigned.

"If Mr. Aristide really wants to serve his country, he really has to, we think, let his nation get on with the future and not try to stir up the past again," Boucher said.

Aristide was a wildly popular slum priest, elected on promises to champion the poor who make up the vast majority of Haiti's 8 million people. But he has lost support, with Haitians saying he failed to improve their lives, condoned corruption and used police and armed supporters to attack political opponents.

On Tuesday, the recently appointed seven-member Council of Sages was considering a replacement for Prime Minister Yvon Neptune, an Aristide appointee.

It was another step in forming a transitional government from Aristide's Lavalas party and a disparate opposition coalition that would organize new elections -- presumably without the ousted president.

Candidates for prime minister are: