OPERATION UPHOLD DEMOCRACY WORKING IN HAITI

JACKI LYDEN, Host: Despite the violent events at Cap-Haitien, U.S. military leaders and Haitian observers alike appear to agree that, on balance, week one of the American intervention has gone well. Some 12,000 U.S. troops are now on Haitian soil and are busy deploying around the country. The job of dismantling and reeducating the Haitian army and police force has begun. From Port- au-Prince, NPR's Alan Tomlinson looks at what's been achieved and what comes next.

ALAN TOMLINSON, Reporter: With the bulk of American forces now safely ashore and the majority of Haitian forces apparently cooperating peaceably, a sense of relief can be detected among the men commanding U.S. soldiers here. At the end of a highly-unusual week in the history of U.S. military adventures overseas, General John Shalikashvilli, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, arrived in Haiti yesterday to assess the progress of Operation Uphold Democracy. He spoke to reporters at the airport last night as he left from Washington.

GEN. JOHN SHALIKASHVILLI, Chmn., Joint Chiefs of Staff: These have been extraordinarily successful six days, but these are just the first six days in a long number of days yet to come.

TOMLINSON: Despite Shalikashvilli's note of caution, one thing is clear. It is American soldiers who now give the orders in Haiti, even though their commander on the ground, General Hugh Shelton, is at pains to use words like cooperation and a mutual respect when describing relations with his Haitian counterpart, General Cedras. For anyone still in doubt about who's really in charge here, U.S. Defense Secretary William Perry set the record straight at the airport last night.

WILLIAM PERRY, Defense Secretary: General Shelton is not negotiating with General Cedras. General Shelton is discussing with General Cedras and informing him what he is going.

TOMLINSON: As U.S. intentions in Haiti became clearer during the week, sources close to the transition process say it gradually dawned upon Cedras and his colleagues that they are no longer in a position to dictate, only to follow orders. That impression was underlined when General Shelton began dismantling the Haitian army, starting with its most powerful unit, the heavy weapons corps. He instructed Cedras to put an end to police beatings of unarmed civilians. Shelton also told Cedras to start disarming his civilian henchmen, known as attaches, who've worked in concert with uniformed Haitians to sow terror for the past three years. `If you don't do it, we will,' was Shelton's message.

Military analyst retired Colonel David Hackworth of Newsweek magazine says he expects disarming civilians and militias to begin in the weeks ahead.

RET. COL. DAVID HACKWORTH, `Newsweek': Most of the bad actors that are referred to as attaches have moved out of the city or are in deep hiding in city, but most of them are into the hinterland. That accounted for all the stolen cars about Thursday. They were collecting their convoys. The people will know who they are - they'll be fingered by the people - and the U.S. military that's now deployed will go after those people. Today I was told by soldiers in the know that that's what's going to go down next week, that the attaches will be defanged.

TOMLINSON: U.S. Special Forces have already moved into Haiti's provincial towns to prepare the way for larger contingents of Army troops to take control. Haiti's main cities were already occupied by this weekend. From these provincial centers U.S. forces are expected to move out next week into towns and villages throughout the country, gradually supplanting and disarming the nationwide network of repression.

Military experts say this stage of U.S. operations could be the most difficult and dangerous. However, Haitian analysts insist that this is an essential step that must be taken promptly if Haiti is to be pacified. Patrick Delatour [sp] is a prominent Haitian historian and sociologist.

PATRICK DELATOUR, Haitian Historian and Sociologist: Now, disarming the civilian might not be as difficult as people think, for it could believe that the idea of buying back guns from the militia will work. Those who are committed to their own self defense will not give back their guns, but I believe that the balance of power generally in the society would make it improbable and maybe impossible for them to use those guns, at least for the foreseeable future, in politically-related situation.

TOMLINSON: Foreign diplomats and progressive Haitians concur that Operation Uphold Democracy has thus far gone better than anyone could have hoped. In just one short week American troops have transformed Haiti by neutralizing the Haitian army and suppressing the machinery of repression. In Port-au-Prince, I'm Alan Tomlinson reporting.

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