19020: (Hermantin)Miami-Herald-When Aristide leaves, revolt ends, rebel says (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: leonie hermantin <lhermantin@hotmail.com>

Posted on Mon, Feb. 23, 2004


HAITIAN LIBERATION FRONT
When Aristide leaves, revolt ends, rebel says

BY JUAN O. TAMAYO
jtamayo@herald.com

The leader of the rebels who seized Haiti's second-largest city Sunday said
he would halt the revolt if President Jean-Bertrand Aristide leaves the
country. But he waffled on what he would do if Aristide's political
opposition agrees to a power-sharing arrangement that leaves the president
in the National Palace.

''All we want is one thing -- for Mr. Aristide to leave. We are waiting for
the president to leave in peace,'' Guy Philippe, head of the Haitian
Liberation Front rebels, told The Herald in an interview by satellite
telephone from Cap Haitien.

Asked what he would do after the capture of Cap Haitien on Sunday, Philippe
said, ``We will wait for one or two days to see if he leaves.''

But the former Cap Haitien police chief and alleged mastermind of several
coup plots would not commit to halting his offensive if Aristide's political
opponents in Port-au-Prince accept a power-sharing arrangement proposed by a
U.S.-backed international diplomatic mission Saturday.

''They won't do that, you can believe me,'' he said of the political
opposition, which has tried to distance itself from the armed rebels. ``They
are very responsible people. I don't think they will betray the people of
Haiti.''

Pressed on the issue, he said the decision to halt the rebellion ''is not a
matter of one or two or three people, it's a matter of the entire
population'' to decide.

''It's a matter of freedom,'' he said in rapid and passable English. ``It's
not easy for the people, with Aristide still in power.

''The people will decide,'' he said. ``I always say we will do what the
people want us to do. We will follow what the people want. . . . I will
listen to the people.''

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