19132: (Chamberlain) Haiti-Rebels (later story) (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

   By PAISLEY DODDS

   CAP-HATIEN, Feb 24 (AP) -- The leader of a motley band of rebels
threatening to take over Haiti said Tuesday he does not want to install a
military dictatorship and indicated he has made informal contact with an
opposition coalition also demanding President Jean-Bertrand Aristide step
down.
   Guy Philippe, a former army officer and Aristide's former assistant
police chief for northern Haiti, said in an interview with The Associated
Press that his movement wants to re-establish the army that ousted Aristide
and was disbanded after U.S. troops restored Aristide to power in 1994, but
said it should not rule Haiti.
   "It's not good for the country," Philippe insisted. "The military should
stay in the barracks."
   Philippe, youthful looking at 35, was busying himself Tuesday directing
the insurgency. It had a cobbled-together feel, but Philippe's ambitions
are not small.
   "I am the commander in chief," he said bluntly.
   At one point, he dashed off to the Western Union office in this northern
city, which the rebels captured on Sunday, saying he needed to pick up
wired donations from Haitians in the United States and Canada. Businessmen
in Haiti were also funding the rebellion, he said.
   On Monday night, Philippe and his commanders disappeared from the Hotel
Mont Joli, where they have been staying to check out reports that Aristide
militants were regrouping on Labadie Beach, normally a hangout of cruise
ship tourists. The fighters found no militants and returned Tuesday.
   Philippe, wearing a crisp camouflage uniform over a white T-shirt, said
he is sending orders to outlying areas by motorcycle messenger. The rebels
cut cell phone service in Cap-Haitien and landline service to
Port-au-Prince, saying they want to sever communications with the capital.
   Residents sought out Philippe, seeking assurances their city would not
plunge into anarchy and chaos.
   An orange grower said he was worried what would happen when the rebels
leave. Philippe assured him he was making the city his operations base.
   In the wake of the rebel takeover, some of Cap-Haitien's 500,000
residents went on a rampage of looting and torching. On Monday, rebels
fired shots to chase away looters and by Tuesday it had abated.
   Some rebels guarded shipping containers at the seaport, which had been
plundered. Rebels also began patrolling in pickup trucks and stood guard at
street corners.
   Philippe needed only 200 fighters to capture Cap-Haitien, as the police
fled in droves.
   He told AP that more than 150 "ordinary civilians" of Cap-Haitien had
joined the rebels, who have put more than half of Haiti and half its 8
million people beyond the control of the central government.
   "We're training them to shoot," Philippe said of the volunteers.
   Asked if he was in contact with opposition politicians also demanding
Aristide's resignation and who have been speaking with Secretary of State
Colin Powell, Philippe smiled and said "not officially." He refused to give
details.
   Opposition leaders said they had no contacts with the rebels or
Aristide: "We don't want to be tainted with any suspicion of condoning
violence," said Mischa Gaillard.
   Aristide maintains that opposition factions are supporting the rebellion
and that the rebels are an armed wing of the political opposition.
   Like Aristide, Philippe said he grew up in a peasant family, near the
southwestern town of Jeremie, and can empathize with the plight of those
struggling to make a living in the Western hemisphere's most impoverished
nation.
   "I know what it is like to be poor," he said. "I understand the people's
struggle."
   Philippe joined the rebellion a week after it was started in Gonaives by
a street gang that used to terrorize Aristide's opponents and turned on
Haiti's president after its leader was assassinated.
   Philippe came from neighboring Dominican Republic, where he fled in 2000
amid charges he was plotting a coup. With him was Louis-Jodel Chamblain,
co-leader of a feared army death squad that murdered hundreds of Haitians
under military rule 1991-1994.
   The Haitian military has a history of ruling with brutality, but
Philippe insisted that under his command, things would change.
   "We will not execute anyone," he said. "I promise."
   ------
   Associated Press reporter Ian James contributed to this story.