19557: Thompson: USATODAY on Boniface Alexandre (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Annette Thompson <annette@precious.org>

Known for honesty, Haitian chief justice assumes power
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2004-02-29-haiti-justice_x.htm
Posted 2/29/2004 10:08 AM     Updated 2/29/2004 1:43 PM

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) - The head of the supreme court, who
announced Sunday that he was taking charge after President Jean-Bertrand
Aristide resigned, is a longtime jurist with a reputation for honesty in
a notoriously corrupt system.
Supreme Court Chief Justice Boniface Alexandre declared three hours
after Aristide fled the country that he was taking charge of the country
under the constitution.

Alexandre, who is in his 60s, urged calm after more than three weeks of
violence in the Caribbean nation of 8 million people.

"The task will not be an easy one," Alexandre told a news conference.
"Haiti is in crisis. ... It needs all its sons and daughters. No one
should take justice into their own hands."

Despite Alexandre's declaration that he was in charge, the Haitian
constitution calls for parliament to approve him as leader and the
legislature has not met since early this year when lawmakers' terms
expired.

But there is a precedent.

When Gen. Prosper Avril was ousted in a palace coup in 1990, Lt. Gen.
Herard Abraham succeeded him and surrendered power to Haiti's Supreme
Court justice. That allowed a transition leading to Haiti's first free
elections in December 1990, which Aristide won in a landslide.

Alexandre has been honored for his honesty and high competence in a
judicial system fraught with corruption.

He was brought up by his uncle, former Prime Minister Martial Celestin,
and represented the French Embassy during 25 years as a lawyer.

Alexandre joined the Court of Appeals in the late 1980s and became one
of the 12 supreme court members in 1990. He was appointed chief justice
about a decade later.