Threats to Aristide supporters

PORT-AU-PRINCE, March 18.—Members of the party headed by the deposed president of Haiti, Jean Bertrand Aristide, are being repressed and, according to his former minister Leslie Voltaire, his former aides are under threat.

Voltaire stated today that members of the Lavalas Family Party cannot meet and are being subjected to a veritable witch hunt.

To the satisfaction of Washington and Paris, the new Haitian government is taking its first steps in the midst of a political crisis that is far from showing signs of being resolved, given the immediate rejection it received, Prensa Latina notes.

The new prime minister, Gerard Latortue – who returned to the country on March 10 to assume the position after 16 years of exile basically in the United States, has sworn in the 19 members of his cabinet: 13 ministers and six secretaries of state.

The ceremony at the National Palace under strict security measures imposed by the U.S. military force deployed in the country, was characterized by scant reference to the national reconciliation promised by Latortue.

The French government, the former colonial metropolis, has decided that Dominique de Villepin, its foreign minister, will be the first foreign dignitary to visit the country in response to an invitation by the new government. He should arrive in Haiti before the end of the month.