Michel Joseph Francois

About 100 gunmen disrupted the investiture ceremony for Haiti's foreign minister Friday, threatening Prime Minister Robert Malval and his ministers, witnesses said. The leaders took cover in an anteroom at the Foreign Ministry. The gunmen allowed them to leave after 90 minutes. There were no reports of injuries, but witnesses said several police officers and army soldiers did nothing to hinder the gunmen.

During his years in Haiti's brutal military regime, U.S. prosecutors say, Lt. Col. Michel-Joseph Francois built clandestine airstrips, corrupted his nation's air and seaports and generally transformed Haiti into a transshipment hub for Colombia's drug cartels. As police chief of Port-au-Prince, Francois made millions of dollars in bribes and profits in an alleged conspiracy that smuggled about 30 tons of cocaine through Haiti and into U.S.

Army commander Raoul Cedras and Police Chief Michel-Joseph Francois are demanding that President Jean-Bertrand Aristide appoint some of his most powerful enemies to at least four key Cabinet ministries before they will leave their posts or allow the exiled leader to return. Evans Francois, the older brother of the powerful police chief and a key adviser to Cedras, said in an interview with two American reporters Monday that "a big Macoute . . .

Lt. Col. Michel-Joseph Francois, one of three Haitian military officers targeted for removal by the United States for their role in overthrowing President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, fled the country Tuesday for the Dominican Republic. The resignation from the army and departure of a man described variously as a "killer," "thug" and "stooge" by U.S. officials, signaled an important move forward in the effort to restore Aristide and force Haiti's military dictatorship out of power. Under U.N.

During his years in Haiti's brutal military regime, U.S. prosecutors say, Lt. Col. Michel-Joseph Francois built clandestine airstrips, corrupted his nation's air and seaports and generally transformed Haiti into a transshipment hub for Colombia's drug cartels. As police chief of Port-au-Prince, Francois made millions of dollars in bribes and profits in an alleged conspiracy that smuggled about 30 tons of cocaine through Haiti and into U.S.

Lt. Col. Michel-Joseph Francois, one of three Haitian military officers targeted for removal by the United States for their role in overthrowing President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, fled the country Tuesday for the Dominican Republic. The resignation from the army and departure of a man described variously as a "killer," "thug" and "stooge" by U.S. officials, signaled an important move forward in the effort to restore Aristide and force Haiti's military dictatorship out of power. Under U.N.

The new democratic government began dismantling the military's propaganda apparatus Friday, halting all local current affairs programming on state radio and television. The new information minister promised to overhaul the state media, which had been controlled by officials loyal to Port-au-Prince Police Chief Michel-Joseph Francois, one of the leaders of the September, 1991, military coup that overthrew President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.

Honduran Supreme Court Judge Marco Tulio Alvarado denied a U.S. request to extradite former Haitian police chief Lt. Col. Michel-Joseph Francois, who is accused of helping Colombian cartels ferry at least 33 tons of drugs into the United States. Alvarado said U.S. authorities had failed to provide credible evidence supporting the petition for extradition. Francois is wanted by a U.S. federal court in Miami on drug-related charges. Francois could be released from prison soon if the U.S.

Lt. Gen. Raoul Cedras is to resign no later than Friday as commander in chief of the 7,000-strong military as part of an accord reached last July aimed at restoring democracy to Haiti and reinstating exiled President Jean-Bertrand Aristide on Oct. 30. Although Cedras has said he will abide by his promise to retire from the army, he has done nothing to prevent anti-Aristide violence by the military and Haitian police that has terrorized the country for two months. The U.N.

Re "In Haiti, Wheels of Justice Turn Ever So Slowly," April 11: Isn't The Times being naive in thinking that those Haitian thugs who drove President Jean-Bertrand Aristide from office will be brought to justice? Though elected by the people of Haiti, the so-called "mad priest," Aristide, had little credibility among the leading circles in the U.S. and was abhorred by his country's entrepreneurs. If Michel-Joseph Francois and Emmanuel Constant are forced to appear in a court of law, they will surely defend their actions by claiming a tie to the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency.

Army commander Raoul Cedras and Police Chief Michel-Joseph Francois are demanding that President Jean-Bertrand Aristide appoint some of his most powerful enemies to at least four key Cabinet ministries before they will leave their posts or allow the exiled leader to return. Evans Francois, the older brother of the powerful police chief and a key adviser to Cedras, said in an interview with two American reporters Monday that "a big Macoute . . .

About 100 gunmen disrupted the investiture ceremony for Haiti's foreign minister Friday, threatening Prime Minister Robert Malval and his ministers, witnesses said. The leaders took cover in an anteroom at the Foreign Ministry. The gunmen allowed them to leave after 90 minutes. There were no reports of injuries, but witnesses said several police officers and army soldiers did nothing to hinder the gunmen.

President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, voicing his government's growing distress, said Friday that Haiti's fragile return to democracy will be jeopardized if U.S. troops here fail to disarm civilian thugs and army units with questionable loyalty to the new rule. "You have to continue disarming the terrorists, those who are killing people and still have weapons, waiting for the moment to come out and make trouble," Aristide said in an interview in the Presidential Palace.

All sides in Haiti, including the military, understand that ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide must be restored to office, but fear stands in the way of figuring out how to arrange that, a senior Clinton Administration official said Wednesday. "The fear level is very pervasive," said the official, who is working on the Haitian crisis daily. "It is fear of the unknown, fear of reprisal, fear of chaos, of people running amok."