Military

DATE= 3/9/04

TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT

TITLE=PENTAGON / HAITI (L ONLY)

NUMBER=2-313966

BYLINE=ALEX BELIDA

DATELINE=PENTAGON

CONTENT=

VOICED AT:

INTRO: A top U-S military official says U-S Marines in Haiti acted properly to defend themselves in a shooting incident that left one Haitian dead and another wounded. More from V-O-A Correspondent Alex Belida at the Pentagon.

TEXT: The casualties occurred in an incident at a checkpoint outside the Haitian capital when Marines opened fire on a speeding vehicle.

General Peter Pace, deputy chairman of the U-S military's Joint Chiefs of Staff, says the shooting was self-defense in the face of a threat.

///PACE ACTUALITY///

There was a vehicle that was traveling at a high rate of speed and aimed itself at the Marines. If they had not fired, they would have been hit by the vehicle.

///END ACTUALITY///

The checkpoint where the shooting occurred is between the airport and an industrial park, where there has been massive looting since Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide left the country in the face of growing opposition.

Meanwhile, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld says there is no sign of either a humanitarian crisis or any mass migration by Haitians resulting from the unrest in the Caribbean country.

///RUMSFELD ACTUALITY///

There's no indication of mass migration. Quite the contrary, it's down to zero for the last three days, as I recall, of anyone trying to leave the country. Second, there's no indication of humanitarian disaster.

///END ACTUALITY///

Some 16 hundred U-S troops are in Haiti, part of an interim multi-national force that also includes 700 soldiers from Canada, Chile and France. (Signed)

NEB/BEL/RH