19753: (Chamberlain) Haiti rebel chief says disarming his forces (later story) (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

     By Jim Loney and Alistair Scrutton

     PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti, March 3 (Reuters) - Haiti's rebel leader said
on Wednesday he was disarming his forces and pulling them off the capital's
lawless streets, where gunfights erupted three days after the president was
driven into exile.
     "We have decided to lay down our arms," said Guy Philippe, one day
after announcing that he was chief of the military and police in defiance
of the United States, which is heading a U.N.-authorized mission to restore
order.
     "The Front from now on has no men patrolling the streets," Philippe
told reporters, referring to the rebel forces.
     Philippe said he had made the decision because international security
forces were moving to disarm supporters of ousted President Jean-Bertrand
Aristide in the city.
     Washington, which is working with prominent Haitians to form a new
administration, told the rebels on Tuesday to lay down their arms because
they had no political role.
     Philippe spoke after gunfights broke out on Wednesday between rebels
and militant supporters of the ex-president.
     The first wave of foreign forces, including U.S., French and Canadian
troops, guarded key sites but kept a low profile.
     Old women with groceries balanced on their heads ran screaming as
shots rang out at a crossroads near the La Saline slum. A truck was
overturned on the road.
     Another gun battle erupted in a traffic jam in a nearby street market,
where panicky drivers reversed at high speed to avoid cross fire. Hundreds
of people fled the streets around the U.S.-guarded National Palace.
     In Washington, a State Department official, who asked not be named,
said the rebels had to make good on their pledge.
     "Nice if it's true," he said. "Promises are a good thing but actually
doing it is what's important."
     Setting the stage for an uneasy stand-off with foreign forces,
Philippe on Tuesday declared himself "military chief" of Haiti's security
forces, including the rebel forces and the Haitian National Police.
     U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell said the United States had been
in contact with rebel leaders on Wednesday and he expected them to abandon
their positions.
     "We are also in touch with some of the rebel leaders today who were
proclaiming themselves into various offices. That will not sustain over
time. That will not be the case," Powell said at a hearing of the House
Appropriations Committee.
     It was not clear whether he knew of Philippe's pledge to lay down his
arms when he spoke.
     The rebels, who overran cities in the north of the country from Feb. 5
onward, started out as a street gang and were joined by ex-soldiers and
paramilitaries.
     Their leaders include men such as former death squad leader Louis
Jodel Chamblain. Human rights groups are alarmed that such people might
achieve any power in Haiti.
     Philippe said he did not have political ambitions and hoped the
international community would create institutions to ensure that "no
tyrants will come back to power."
     With the power off, decomposing bodies littered the floor of the
Port-au-Prince morgue, where officials said they had received 30 corpses
since since Aristide left on Sunday. More than 100 people have died since
the revolt erupted nearly a month ago.
     Hundreds of Haitians clamored for food outside the National Palace as
an aid agency distributed supplies.
     U.S. Marines had not begun street patrols on Wednesday morning despite
a pledge to increase their presence after Philippe and his men began
asserting their control.
     "We have not been missioned to patrol as yet," Marine Staff Sgt.
Timothy Edwards said in a briefing at the airport. More than 1,000 U.S.
troops are in Haiti as part of a multinational force that is expected to
grow to around 5,000.
     Celebrating their victory over Aristide, about 50 rebels, accompanied
by prostitutes, drank heavily in a luxury hotel late on Tuesday, downing
large quantities of beer.
     Prime Minister Yvon Neptune told Reuters Haiti was running "as best as
it can at the moment."
     "There is no legislature. The ministers are in hiding. I am in my
office but my latitude to function is severely curtailed," he said in a
telephone interview from his office.
     Washington is trying to create a council of a dozen prominent Haitians
to organize early elections.

  (Additional reporting by Joseph Guyler Delva and Amy Bracken in
Port-au-Prince, Saul Hudson in Washington)