THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, October 18, 1994 TAG: 9410180559
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A11 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JACK DORSEY, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 53 lines
The idea had its skeptics, but putting boat people to work as security forces back in Haiti appears to be working, said the Norfolk admiral who orchestrated the military mission in Haiti.
``They are the new guys on the streets, wearing white shirts, blue pants and a blue policeman's cap,'' said Adm. Paul David Miller, commander in chief of the U.S. Atlantic Command.
Training of refugees as police was conducted at Guantanamo Bay Naval Station in Cuba, where some 14,000 Haitians were taken after they were rescued trying to flee Haiti in rickety boats.
Miller is anxious to show Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide how the repatriated Haitians can serve their country.
In a brief interview Monday, Miller expressed his satisfaction with the Haitian operation, in which Army and Navy forces, working together, shifted a planned Sept. 18 invasion into a peaceful occupation within a matter of hours.
Miller also is pleased with the plan to begin turning Haiti's security responsibilities back to Haitians.
``We used these new (police) trainees from Gitmo where everybody said it wouldn't work,'' he said.
About 25 former refugee men were given some police training and a new uniform then sent to the city of Cap Haitien on the north shore. There, they are working side-by-side with international police monitors and new members of the Front for the Advancement and Progress of Haiti, or FRAPH - a group that had terrorized Haitians during Aristide's three-year exile.
``They are doing security patrols in downtown Cap Haitien right now,'' Miller said. ``We are trying to get president Aristide up there this week to look at our model and if he says he likes it, we will make it happen in Port-au-Prince.'' ILLUSTRATION: Graphic
SHIPS RETURNING
The Norfolk-based amphibious ships Wasp and Nashville, with 1,800
Camp Lejeune, N.C., Marines aboard, were ordered Monday to return
home from Haiti. The carrier America and amphibious dock landing
ship Ashland, also serving off Haiti, are expected to get under way
for Norfolk today. The command ship Mount Whitney is expected to
head home from Haiti early next week.
KEYWORDS: HAITI by CNB