PORT-AU-PRINCE, Dec. 14 (IPS) — President Jean-Bertrand Aristide of Haiti again urged international forces to support the disarmament of former military and paramilitary forces, saying that the success of the U.N. Mission in Haiti (UNMIH) depended on future peace and stability in the country.

‘’Before I came back last October 1994, I called for disarmament, saying clearly that disarmament is tied to the success of this mission. One year later we realise that there are still thugs, terrorists, extremists using weapons, threatening people, killing some others,’’ Aristide told a press conference Thursday.

‘’If the world will talk about democracy in Haiti, they will have to see a peaceful nation without thugs with weapons,’’ Aristide said, urging the 6,000-strong U.N. forces to take a more aggressive effort in helping the new Haitian police disarm opponents of democracy.

‘’If not, as we saw it in some other countries, we will see negative effects. It’s a matter of political will,’’ he said.

The issue of disarmament has long been a sore point between the Haitian government and the international community.

But following the murder of a popular lawmaker and relative of Aristide in early November, and Haitian intelligence reports of increased activity by former military and paramilitary forces, fears have grown here that a serious challenge could be mounted against civilian authorities once U.N. troops leave in late February.

U.S. and U.N. officials agree that more can be done. But they point out they’ve already retrieved some 30,000 weapons since some 20,000 U.S. troops landed last September to oust Haiti’s military regime and restore Aristide.

But the government claims that international forces are not doing enough, such as sharing intelligence information with Haitian authorities. In some cases, they say, the international forces are actually blocking disarmament efforts.

‘’(Secure and stable) is written in U.N. Security Council Resolution 940,’’ Aristide insisted in a briefing before some 50 foreign journalists here to cover Sunday’s presidential elections.

‘’And (disarmament) is easier now than yesterday because now we have a Haitian police force, and the Haitian police force is ready to continue to disarm thugs. It’s just a matter of receiving information from the U.S. side and the international community and being assisted as a national police force by them,’’ he said.

In the wide-ranging press conference that dealt with everything from Aristide’s wedding engagement to his role in the priesthood, Haiti’s first democratically-elected leader also urged the international community to step up efforts to provide badly needed economic aid to the poorest country in the hemisphere.

Donors had pledged a 1.2-billoon-dollar package in grants and loans over 1995-96, but little of that has found its way to the ground. Like other donors, for example, the World Bank, as of mid- November, had provided 40 million dollars in balance of payment support but only 15 million dollars in development projects.

‘’The international community helped us to clear arrears (on the debt), that’s good. But the Haitian people don’t see the results, they should see creation of jobs and then they would welcome it,’’ he said.

‘’Today, the Haitian people clearly are talking about the cost of life. You can see the result — boat people. If they are leaving, it’s not for political reasons, it’s for economic reasons. They need jobs,’’ he added, referring to the recent increase of Haitians fleeing the country.

Aristide also appeared to tie the question of aid flows to the privatisation of nine state-owned companies. He suggested that although the Haitian government has stalled on a Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP) that they agreed to in August of last year, international financial institutions have not kept their end of the bargain.

‘’This issue, privatisation, we always respected what we said and we always wanted all the partners to do the same. Not respecting part of what was said, but all. We did that,’’ said Aristide, saying he had a ‘’wonderful’’ relationship with the World Bank and a personal relationship with the World Bank chief, James Wolfensohn.

International financial institutions have been blocking at least 50 million dollars in balance-of-payments support until progress is made on privatisation.

But Aristide said Thursday that the government was prepared to sign a letter of intent to the World Bank, and to resume negotiations with the international financial institutions as soon as possible. (END/IPS/DC/JL/95)

Origin: Washington/HAITI/ ----

[c] 1995, InterPress Third World News Agency (IPS) All rights reserved

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