Marines Receive Mixed Reaction in Haiti [View All]

Marines Receive Mixed Reaction in Haiti
Fri Mar 5,12:40 AM ET

By MARK STEVENSON and PAISLEY DODDS, Associated Press Writers

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti - U.S. Marines trained their rifles down gritty streets and into a teeming market as they patrolled the Haitian capital with other peacekeepers Thursday, drawing smiles and a few angry words, but no resistance.

Hatred is still simmering among various factions nearly a week after President Jean-Bertrand Aristide was ousted in a rebellion that left at least 130 people dead, with new killings discovered outside Port-au-Prince.

...

"I feel much safer now the Marines are here," said Frantz Labissiere, 44. "I wouldn't be here if the Marines weren't here."

But not everyone shared his view. As the convoy passed an angry knot of people, one youth shouted: "You took our president — now you're taking our country!"

Others held up photographs of Aristide, who fled the country Sunday as rebels neared the outskirts of the capital and the United States and former colonial ruler France pressed him to resign.

...

"People are still angry" at Aristide's departure, said Marie-Claude Augustine, 46. "Just because we have tanks patrolling, it doesn't make things better. The rebels need to just go and so do the Americans."

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http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=589&e=1&u=/ap/20040305/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/haiti

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surprise, surprise, .... not all Haitians are "hailing" the American soldiers as earlier reported. you can bet a hot keg is simmering, now that word is getting out there that Aristide did not willingly and freely resign and was whisked away by U.S. soldiers and kidnapped, to use his words. Yes, the American soldiers must be highly thought of there.