19669: (Craig) NYT: Haiti Rebel Proclaims Himself Military Chief (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Dan Craig <hoosier@att.net>

Haiti Rebel Proclaims Himself Military Chief
March 2, 2004
By TIM WEINER and LYDIA POLGREEN

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti, March 2 - Haiti plunged deeper into
political anarchy today as one of the rebellion's leaders
proclaimed himself the new commander of the army, appearing
to grab power without legal authority.

"I am the chief," the rebel leader, Guy Philippe, announced
at a conference. "The military chief."

The Haitian army was dissolved in 1995 by President
Jean-Bertrand Aristide, who fell from power on Sunday,
after a hard shove from the United States. Many of the
armed rebels who stormed into Haiti's capital on Monday are
veterans of the army, which overthrew Mr. Aristide in 1991,
and past leaders of military-affiliated death squads.

United States Marines sent as part of a multinational
peacekeeping force set up a guard at the offices of Mr.
Aristide's prime minister, Yvon Neptune, also unseen since
Sunday. There were rumors that Mr. Philippe intended to
arrest Mr. Neptune, setting up a possible confrontation
with the Marines.

Mr. Aristide's appointed successor, Boniface Alexandre,
also has not been seen or heard from since he was sworn in
on Sunday. The whereabouts of Mr. Alexandre, the chief
justice of the supreme court, were unclear, as were his
political intentions and his constitutional authority.
Haiti's constitution says his appointment must be ratified
by the legislature, which has been dissolved.

Complicating the political chaos, Jean-Claude Duvalier,
Haiti's former "president for life," said in Miami that he
planned to return to Haiti. He ruled from the 1971 death of
his father, Fran?ois, the dictator known as "Papa Doc,"
until the army overthrew him in 1986. During the
three-decade Duvalier dynasty, the government killed
thousands of opponents and stole many millions of dollars
from Haiti's treasury.

With the apparent grab for power by Mr. Philippe and his
rebel allies, Haiti seemed to be falling deeper into the
clutches of a self-appointed armed junta.

"It is an absolutely failed state - no institutions, no
rule of law, no spirit of compromise, no security," said
Robert Pastor, director of the Center for Democracy and
Election Management at American University. Mr. Pastor has
monitored elections here since 1987.

"There is no state right now," he said.

Haiti has no real
police, only private militias and the contingent of 200
United States Marines sent here by President Bush on
Sunday. The marines are not under orders to police Haiti's
streets.

In addition to a provisional president and a vanished
legislature, Haiti has a severe lack of "basic health care,
clean water, education, roads" said Dr. Paul Farmer, an
American physician who has worked for the better part of 20
years. "And I don't see that as a basic priority of the
chaps with guns."

For the moment, those men with guns are in charge here.

The United States is trying to help create a "council of
elders" among a squabbling group of political elites "who
were united only by their hatred for Aristide," said Robert
Maguire, director of the Haiti Program at Trinity College
in Washington.

Now that Mr. Aristide is gone, so has the political
opposition's unifying principle.

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/02/international/americas/02CND-HAIT.html?ex=1079266094&ei=1&en=cb501903bdaf19f6
Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company