19759: (Chamberlain) Haiti rebels vow to lay down arms (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 retreating from the streets of
Port-au-Prince, where gunfights erupted three days after the president was
driven into exile.
     Hours later, Prime Minister Yvon Neptune declared a state of
emergency, allowing the government to suspend certain constitutional rights
such as press freedoms and the right to demonstrate.
     For the first time since President Jean-Bertrand Aristide fled into
exile, U.S. forces rolled into the tumultuous streets of the capital in
force, patrolling in Humvees equipped with machine guns and rocket
launchers. They met no resistance and helped clear the streets of charred
vehicle and other debris.
     In Petit Goave, southwest of the capital, residents detained a
militant Aristide supporter accused of murder, threw him to the ground and
smashed heavy stones into his head. They then macheted him before burning
him alive by putting flaming tires around his body.
     The decision by rebel leader Guy Philippe, whose month-long revolt led
to Aristide's downfall, came after a brief meeting with the top U.S.
military official in Haiti. He was told the United States expected him to
honor his word and disarm.
     "We have decided to lay down our arms," said Philippe a 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.
     Over a thousand people marched by the U.S. Marine-guarded National
Palace in support of Aristide, who was forced from office on Sunday by the
armed revolt and by international pressure.
     Philippe, a former police chief, said he had made the decision because
international security forces were moving to disarm Aristide supporters.
But the U.S. military commander in Haiti said the multinational force,
which now numbers more than 1,700 American, French and Canadian troops, was
not taking sides.
     "I'm not interested in who's got the weapons," said Marine Col. Mark
Gurganus. "What I'm interested in is everyone who has the weapons."
     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. Old women with groceries
balanced on their heads ran screaming as shots rang out at a crossroads
near the La Saline slum.
     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.
     Philippe had on Tuesday declared himself the "military chief" of
Haiti's security forces, including the rebels and the Haitian National
Police.
     But Gurganus said after his face-to-face meeting with the rebel chief
that he expected Philippe to disarm. "I was very happy with his responses.
I think he'll be a man of honor and I think that he'll do what he says."
     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 Louis Jodel Chamblain, the former
leader of a death squad accused of thousands of killings. 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."
     From his exile in the Central African Republic, Aristide has claimed
he was kidnapped by U.S. security forces. The U.S. government has denied
the allegation.
     Haiti's interim president, former Supreme Court chief justice Boniface
Alexandre, addressed the nation for the first time on Wednesday, calling on
Haitians to unite.
     "I'm the president of all Haitians," he said in a radio speech. "I
call on all Haitians to join together for peace."
     With the power off and no preservative chemicals, decomposing bodies
littered the floor of the Port-au-Prince morgue, where officials said they
had received 30 corpses since Aristide left on Sunday. More than 100 people
have died since the revolt erupted.
     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. Philippe and his entourage ordered three bottles
of $90-a-bottle champagne but left without paying for it, according to a
hotel source.
     (Additional reporting by Joseph Guyler Delva and Amy Bracken in
Port-au-Prince, Saul Hudson in Washington)