PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — In a move applying both force and appeasement, officials of the embattled interim government said Saturday that they had ended an armed standoff with soldiers of the disbanded Haitian army by promising them back wages and jobs in exchange for their weapons.
Although more radical elements of the demobilized army remained at large, both the government of interim Prime Minister Gerard Latortue and a U.N. official here cast the bloodless settlement of the latest security crisis as a resolute display of commitment to disarm any faction menacing public order.
About 100 men in mismatched uniforms bearing antiquated rifles seized the former residence of exiled President Jean-Bertrand Aristide on Wednesday and proclaimed the sprawling compound their new headquarters.
Although the holed-up troops had vowed via cellphone interviews to die rather than surrender, they quickly gave up their weapons and agreed to accept the government's "reintegration" offer after the U.N. troops stormed the site late Friday, said United Nations spokesman Damian Onses-Cardona.
"This sends a very clear message to all armed factions that they can't do anything they want," Onses-Cardona said.
For months, the Brazilian-led U.N. peacekeepers have been grappling with armed pro-Aristide gangs in slums here in the capital as well as with the former soldiers who oppose Aristide.
Many Haitians regard the demobilized troops as both victims and patriots. Although the faceoff in Tabarre, a suburb of the capital, ended peacefully, it incited protests by former military figures and their supporters in scattered rural areas.
Bands of armed rebels and ex-soldiers attacked U.N. peacekeepers in Petit Goave and Miragoane on Friday and Saturday and temporarily ousted police from their stations in the towns of Arcahaie and Mirebalais.
In Tabarre, though, the ex-soldiers proved open to compromise as they grew hungry and exhausted and increasingly felt betrayed by their self-appointed leader, Remissainthe Ravix. The former troops traded their arms for temporary lodging at the National Police Academy and assurances that they would receive unspecified "advances" on their wage claims within a month, said interim Justice Minister Bernard Gousse.
"We agreed to integrate them into current government institutions -- the police force, customs, administrative offices," Gousse said, adding that those of retirement age would be paid their pensions.
