U.N. Forces Evict Ex-Soldiers in Haiti

United Nations peacekeepers Friday stormed the former home of ousted Haitian president Jean-Bertrand Aristide to evict former soldiers who seized the compound two days ago.

The Brazilian-led troops detonated an explosive device as a warning before entering the plundered estate, said Col. Carlos Barcellos, the commander of the Brazilian peacekeeping force. He said the ex-soldiers put up no resistance, and nobody was injured in the blast.

After meeting with U.N. troops, the former soldiers agreed to lay down their weapons and were to be taken to a police academy near Aristide’s abandoned estate in suburban Tabarre, Barcellos said.

The former soldiers, who led a three-week rebellion that forced Aristide to flee in February, took over the estate Wednesday. They said they would convert it into a new army base, and repeated demands that the interim government reinstate the army.

The rebels include members of the army that ousted Aristide in 1991 as well as convicted criminals and others accused of killings, rapes and torture under the 1991-1994 military regime.

Aristide disbanded the army after the United States intervened to restore him to power in 1994.

The former soldiers say they want to play a law-enforcement role in Haiti, whose ill-equipped police force of 4,000 is unable to provide security for the 8.5 million citizens.

U.N. troops also surrounded a second compound in the capital where rebel former soldiers have been holed up for two months. They were greeted with a shower of rocks and voodoo curses.