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PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti -- When discharged soldiers stormed military headquarters to demand back pay, they confirmed the fears of many Haitians that the brutal army couldn't be rehabilitated without bloodshed.
U.S. and loyal Haitian troops killed four and wounded at least six former soldiers. It was the most dramatic clash since U.S. troops arrived in September to usher in the return from exile of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.
In order to rebuild his homeland, Aristide has the difficult job of dismantling the old army and reshaping it into a security force that can keep order without resorting to terror. The task is complicated by popular anger, which threatens to respond with violence against the remnants of the military that ruled them by violence for three years.
After the army ousted him in 1991, soldiers and their paramilitary allies terrorized the population, killing thousands of people.
During Monday's clash, popular hatred of the army exploded. Hundreds of people chanted, "Kill them!" as thousands paraded around a main plaza demanding the army's dissolution.
Aristide's government has slashed the size of the army from 7,500 to 1,500 vetted soldiers.
A new civilian police force of 4,500, trained by foreign instructors, will be in place by early 1996. Until then, an interim force of 3,000 recycled soldiers and 1,000 fresh recruits is being supervised by 800 international monitors.
The pay dispute has been brewing since last week, when the army command said only 1,500 soldiers would get their December pay. Discharged soldiers massed at headquarters for several days demanding pay and pensions, prompting the government to promise they would be paid.
Active-duty soldiers stay in touch with discharged ones, who "are regrouping in small bands'' with paramilitary gunmen to discuss political strategy, said a former adviser to the ousted military regime.
Haitian analysts believe Aristide's ex-army enemies are waiting for the U.S. Congress to pass to control of the Republicans, critical of the leftist Aristide.
Command of the U.S-led multinational force is to pass to the United Nations next spring, but Americans will make up half the 6,000-member force.
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