19421: (Hermantin) Miami-Herald-Rebel chief says he is a servant of his nation (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: leonie hermantin <lhermantin@hotmail.com>


LEADER OF INSURGENCY


Rebel chief says he is a servant of his nation

Guy Philippe, an ex-policeman and now head of the Haitian insurgency,
declares patriotism his only motive.

By SUSANNAH A. NESMITH

snesmith@herald.com


CAP HAITIEN, Haiti - Guy Philippe, the diminutive, soft-spoken leader of the
Haitian Liberation Front speaks in almost scripted words: He is the quiet
hero of a story he is directing himself.

''I heard my people. I saw their misery. I saw the way they were treated,''
the 35-year-old Philippe said during one of several interviews with The
Herald in this rebel-controlled city.

``I'm not doing this for political reasons. Can't someone just love their
country, be a good patriot?''

Haitian as well as U.S. government officials have accused Philippe, a former
Cap Haitien police commissioner, of involvement in drug trafficking and
three coup plots in 2000 and 2001.

Human Rights Watch reported Friday that during Philippe's term as police
chief of the Port-au-Prince suburb of Delmas from 1997 to 1999,
international monitors ''learned that dozens of suspected gang members were
summarily executed, mainly by police under the command of . . . Philippes
deputy.'' Philippe has denied all the allegations.

Wearing a camouflage uniform but unarmed as he ate lunch at a poolside table
in the Hotel Mont Joli, his base since his men took Cap Haitien on Sunday,
he would not say exactly when his men will move on Port-au-Prince.

He is in contact with people there and keeps a close eye on news reports of
spreading chaos, he said. He has told some interviewers the he already has
fighters in some areas of the capital but that they will not move until he
says so.

Philippe has told other reporters that he would like to enter the Haitian
capital on Sunday -- his birthday.

Philippe can talk about military strategy, politics or literature with equal
ease.

He says his favorite author is 18th century French philosopher Baron de
Montesquieu, and his favorite book Charles de Secondat Montesquieu's 18th
century essay De L'Esprit des Lois, which advocated the separation of
government powers and helped shape the thinking of the framers of the U.S.
Constitution.

The man he most admires is former Chilean dictator Gen. Augusto Pinochet, he
said. ``Pinochet made Chile what it is.''

No. 2 on his list is former U.S. President Ronald Reagan.

As for politics, he claims to have no personal ambitions. Once Aristide is
out, he said, he wants the president of the Constitutional Court to take
over an interim government while a national debate is held to form a
consensus government. ''I think I have to be there to defend my men's
positions,'' he said. ``We're not going to let the country have another
Aristide.''

Philipe and 10 other police officers went into exile in the neighboring
Dominican Republic in 2000 after Aristide accused them of plotting a coup.

''We were in control of almost all the police at that time,'' he said. ``We
decided to go for the good of the country. I didn't think I would come back
like this. But as the man became a tyrant, I had to come back and fight for
my country.''

When Philippe is not worrying about how to keep the hospital in Cap Haitien
running or get the schools opened again, he's sorting out the logistics of
his new army.

''We have enough money for 15 or 22 days,'' he said Friday, pulling out a
white envelope wrapped in rubber bands and full of Haitian cash he said was
donated by supporters. He said some supporters in the United States also are
contributing to his efforts.

Outside the hotel, 100 men waited to volunteer for his Haitian Liberation
Front. He said another 300 or 400 had volunteered on Thursday.

''I already have a national army,'' he said.

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