19713: (Hermantin)Sun-Sentinel-Talks begin to form new Haitian government as calm retur (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: leonie hermantin <lhermantin@hotmail.com>

Talks begin to form new Haitian government as calm returns

By Tim Collie
Staff Writer
Posted March 2 2004

PORT-AU-PRINCE -- Thousands of Haitians poured into the streets of the
capital city on Monday to welcome the arrival of anti-government rebels
whose bloody 4-week-old uprising helped drive President Jean-Bertrand
Aristide from power.

U.S. Marines were deployed to guard the National Palace, one day after
Aristide resigned and flew into exile under mounting pressure.


The street violence that had gripped the capital for weeks appeared to be
subsiding, as trucks filled with armed pro-Aristide militant gangs were
replaced by patrols of anti-Aristide rebel fighters.

Early in the day, a caravan of SUVs flanked by police escorts carried rebel
leaders Guy Philippe and Louis-Jodel Chamblain into the capital as throngs
of Haitians cheered and saluted in a raucous parade that ended at the
Haitian National Police headquarters.

Evans Paul, a leading member of the political anti-Aristide opposition, said
on Monday that members of a transitional Haitian government could be named
in Port-au-Prince as early as today.

"We've started consultations and I'm confident that we'll have a new
government in place soon. … in the next 24 hours," said Paul, a former mayor
of Port-au-Prince and ex-Aristide ally.

"Obviously," he added, "we want people to lay down their arms, to stop the
violence, and we need to take steps toward doing that as soon as possible."

Paul also expressed concern that figures like Chamblain -- a former Haitian
military leader linked to human rights abuses in the early 1990s -- were
re-emerging in post-Aristide Haiti. Chamblain was sentenced in absentia to
life in prison for the murder of an Aristide supporter in 1993 and fled to
the Dominican Republic, where he lived in exile until the rebellion began
Feb. 5.

"Chamblain's presence makes me feel very awkward, personally," said Paul,
who, like many former members of Aristide's political opposition, suffered
during the period of military rule in Haiti in the early 1990s.

At least 5,000 people were murdered in political assassinations during the
early 1990s, when Haiti was run by a military junta.

"But I cannot do anything about Chamblain right now," said Paul. "It's a new
government that has to resolve this, and that's what we need to focus on
right now."

`They are my police'

As the rebels neared Port-au-Prince, a few police vehicles entered the
convoy, the officers waving from the windows at cheering crowds. Only days
earlier in Gonaïves, Hinche and other cities, Haitian police and the rebel
forces had engaged in fatal gun battles.

"I accept the police now," said Philippe, "because they are my police."

As the rebels rolled into the city, Aristide made his first public
statements since fleeing Haiti, telling The Associated Press that he was
"forced to leave" by U.S. military forces who spirited him out of the
country.

"Agents were telling me that if I don't leave they would start shooting and
killing in a matter of time," Aristide said during a telephone interview
from the Central African Republic. When asked who the agents were, he
responded: "White American, white military."

The White House, Pentagon and State Department have denied Aristide's
allegations that he was kidnapped by U.S. forces eager for him to resign.

In Haiti, as the rebel convoy hit the capital on Monday, Philippe and his
men went from police station to police station. Most were empty or staffed
with a few officers. Before heading to the national police headquarters,
across from the National Palace, the convoy circulated through the capital,
whipping up crowds by waving their rifles and pistols in the air.

Outside the palace, U.S. Marines -- dispatched to Haiti by President Bush
late Sunday -- set up posts on the steps of the ornate white building before
the rebel convoy arrived. The rebels and the Marines did not make any effort
to meet or confront one another. A U.S. Marine commander said the deployment
to the palace was in response to the large but peaceful crowds.

At Toussaint L'Ouverature International Airport, U.S. Marine Col. David
Berger said the 200 Marines under his control in Haiti would serve as a
beachhead for a larger contingent of U.S. and international forces,
authorized by the United Nations Security Council late Sunday.

The Marines were on hand to secure the airport, the city's port and key
installations, as well as protect U.S. interests, he said. Nearby, 130
French Marines dispatched from a base in Martinique were also setting up a
base camp.

"This is definitely not a hostile environment, not at all," said Berger,
from the 8th Battalion, based in Camp Lejeune, N.C. "I think most of us who
have experience in Haiti, or the Haitians we have in our company, don't
expect hostility. We did not expect to come out of the airplane and fight
our way to the terminal, no.

"The U.S. forces have been sent here to secure key sites in the capital to
achieve more security and a stable environment. People who interfere with
that mission, we will handle with appropriate force."

Rising death toll

Berger said his orders did not include policing the city or protecting
anything but American property, but he expects those orders to change.
Haitian radio reported that 10 bullet-riddled bodies had been received at
the city's morgue overnight, raising the death toll from the 4-week-old
rebellion to more than 110.

In interviews, Philippe and Chamblain said they were not interested in
taking over the country, even though the rebellion they led had seized half
the nation and more than a dozen cities before Aristide resigned Sunday.

"Ninety-nine percent of the people are with me and only 1 percent are with
Aristide," said Chamblain.

"Let the Haitian people judge me, but also let them judge Aristide,"
Chamblain said, as waved to crowds from the window of the national police
headquarters. "We have no interest in seizing power, and I want to thank the
Americans, the French and the Canadians for helping us get rid of Aristide."

Philippe said the rebels plan to make preparations for the new president,
former Supreme Court Chief Justice Boniface Alexandre, to assume office, as
called for in the constitution. Also on Monday, the rebels met with
representatives of the diplomatic community and the Democratic Platform, one
of the leading political opposition groups that had sought Aristide's
resignation.

Many Haitians in the crowd outside the station said the rebels' arrival
represented a new chance that peace, jobs and free speech would be coming to
Haiti.

"We had a lot of thugs here in political office, and I hope that era is
over," said Claude Eustache, 48. "Here what you have in this crowd is a lot
of young people who just want jobs. That's basically all that matters. If
people can work for a living, then they'd support the government."

Marie Sophia Denis, a 24-year-old law student, said she just hoped to return
to school now that the violence and turmoil that has gripped Haiti in recent
months appeared to be abating.

"The government attacked the school because the students were protesting the
government, and what that meant was that I haven't been able to go to class
since October," Denis said. "It wasn't safe to be a student, and if you
cannot study, what kind of future do you have."

Airline service

Also on Monday, American Airlines pushed back until Friday the resumption of
flights to Port-au-Prince, saying its workers can't safely get to the
airport, which remains closed to commercial traffic.

When it suspended service last week, it said flights would be grounded
through Wednesday.

American has a daily flight between Port-au-Prince and Fort Lauderdale, as
well as three to Miami and one to New York's JFK International Airport.

Other firms also are taking time before returning. In a posting on its Web
site , cruise line Royal Caribbean International said it won't resume calls
at Labadee, on Haiti's north coast, until April.

Special Correspondent Jane Regan and Staff WriterTom Stieghorst contributed
to this report.


HOW TO HELP
These are area churches or organizations collecting food, clothing and
medicine:


Bedia Haitian Baptist Church Inc.
2041 NW 28th St.
Fort Lauderdale, FL 33311
(954) 484-3457


Haitian United Methodist Mission
220 SW 6th Ave.
Hallandale Beach, FL 33009
(954) 458-8055


Haitian Missionary Baptist Church
1731 Alcazar Dr.
Miramar, FL 33023
(954) 961-4030


Haitian American Community Council
600 N. Congress St., Suite 350
Delray Beach, FL 33445
(561)-272-2520

To make a donation, send checks payable to:


Operation Helping Hands c/o United Way of Miami-Dade
P.O. Box 459007
Miami, FL 33245
1-800-226-3320

or

www.iwant2help.org




Copyright © 2004, South Florida Sun-Sentinel

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