19705: (Hermantin)Miami-Herald-Haiti 'is in my hands,' rebel says (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: leonie hermantin <lhermantin@hotmail.com>

Posted on Wed, Mar. 03, 2004

Haiti 'is in my hands,' rebel says

BY SUSANNAH A. NESMITH AND NANCY SAN MARTIN

snesmith@herald.com


PORT AU PRINCE - Rushing to fill Haiti's power vacuum, rebel leader Guy
Philippe Tuesday declared himself the country's ''military chief'' and
threatened to jail the prime minister. Washington said Philippe and the
rebels should get lost.

''The country is in my hands,'' said the leader of the rebellion that forced
President Jean-Bertrand Aristide to resign and flee into exile Sunday.
``Until the [new] president makes the decision, we have the moral obligation
to help the people of Haiti.''

Philippe also threatened to arrest Prime Minister Yvon Neptune on corruption
charges and said he had ordered his fighters to patrol Port-au-Prince --
despite the presence of some 1,000 U.S. Marines, plus Canadian and French
troops.

In Washington, U.S. State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said the
rebels would have no influence in the political process to replace Aristide.
``The rebels have to lay down their arms and go home.''

While the U.S. military said it still had not received instructions on how
to deal with the rebels, the State Department's point man on Latin America,
Roger Noriega, also made it clear that Washington wanted to see the back of
Philippe.

''He is not in control of anything but a ragtag band of people,'' Noriega
told the Senate Foreign Relations committee, adding that as more U.S. forces
arrive in coming days, ``Philippe will probably want to make himself
scarce.''

For his part, Philippe said he had no problems with the foreign
peacekeepers, expected to swell to fewer than 5,000 within weeks. Chile was
reportedly sending 270 soldiers within days, and more later, and Brazil has
promised to send troops.

''They are very welcome,'' he said. ``The people need security.''

Even without security, the Haitian capital began returning to normal.

Traffic congestion returned to this bustling city, many businesses opened
their doors, vendors clogged their usual corners and even gas stations were
busy as residents resumed lives interrupted by a four-week rebellion against
Aristide that killed more than 100.

The Marines who arrived Tuesday have not yet begun patrolling the streets,
but a contingent -- aboard three Humvees and four SUVs -- drove to the
seaport for a security assessment.

Armed rebels drove past the seaport in a show of force, but they never
crossed paths with the Marines.

''Right now, we have no direct military interaction with the Haitians,''
said Raul Duany, spokesman for the Pentagon's Miami-based Southern Command.

He declined to comment on whether the international force would try to
disarm the various pro- and anti-Aristide factions still vying for power.

The U.N. Security Council approved the three-month peacekeeping mission this
weekend, but Secretary General Kofi Annan urged the international community
Tuesday to prepare for a much longer stay in Haiti.

''We need to work with them to stabilize the country, and sustain the
effort,'' Annan said. ``It may take years, and I hope we will have the
patience to do it.''

It will also take a real Haitian government. But President Boniface
Alexandre, the supreme court justice sworn in after Aristide resigned, has
not been seen in public since Sunday.

PREMIER UNFAZED

Philippe's brazen power grab did not seem to bother even Neptune, the prime
minister, who said he was aware but not worried about the rebel's arrest
threat.

''As far as we are concerned, I am doing what I have to,'' Neptune told The
Herald in a telephone interview from his office, which was being guarded by
Marines.

He said he has been sleeping at the office because looters ransacked and
torched his house, as well as the residences of several other members of
government and the Lavalas Family, Aristide's political party.

On the political front, Neptune said he has asked Leslie Voltaire,
Aristide's minister for Haitians living abroad, to sit on a three-person
committee that would eventually choose a new compromise prime minister.
Another member will be named by the opposition, and the international
community will appoint the third.

''It's up to the people who are running the show'' to decide when a new
prime minister would be named, Neptune said. He declined to say who would
decide when the three-member panel would be named or when it would meet.

But one opposition member said the process was moving too slow, given the
insecurity in the country.

''There is no administration in the country,'' Ariel Henry, a Democratic
Convergence member, said. ``There are no police. It's incredible. We cannot
continue like this. We have no government, we have nothing.''

He said he hoped that a new prime minister could be named by the end of the
week.

Also on Tuesday, the 15-member Caribbean Community met in Jamaica to decide
on its role in Haiti -- its power-sharing proposals remain at the heart of
plans for a post-Aristide government -- but postponed a decision until
today.

French and Canadian officials, meanwhile, said getting humanitarian aid into
Haiti is the priority. The French foreign minister said an aid flight would
be sent today to bring in Red Cross ambulances and supplies.

The United Nations Children's Fund, or UNICEF, was also planning an airlift
of emergency items.

REBELS IN CAPITAL

Back on the streets of Port-au-Prince, rebels moved into many neighborhoods
to announce they were in charge and peace had returned.

The rebels went as far as Kenskoff, a satellite city of Port-au-Prince
perched on a mountain 850 feet above sea level. The air was cool and pine
trees still stood tall in a country with little vegetation.

''Don't be afraid -- relax,'' a man in civilian clothing told motorists as
about six heavily armed rebels in military fatigues guarded a filling
station. ``We're just controlling the people getting gas.''

For Malicia Pierre, a mother of three, the rebels' reassuring words were
enough for her to return to her stand Tuesday to sell fried pork and
plantains. She had lost three days of work when the violence reached the
normally quiet, picturesque community.

''This is the first time I can come out and make some money,'' said Pierra,
40. ``The rebels came and . . . told us we were free. . . . I just want
everything to return to the way it was before.''

A defiant Philippe, meanwhile, brushed aside the position of Washington.
Human Rights Watch and other groups hold him responsible for political
killings while he was a local police chief.

''It is not for them to decide,'' he said at a news conference, flanked by
five rebel leaders and five police officers.

``It is for the Haitian people to decide.''

Herald staff writers Trenton Daniel in Port-au-Prince and Jacqueline Charles
and Martin Merzer in Miami contributed to this report.

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