18769: (Chamberlain) AP Haiti (later story) (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

   By MARK STEVENSON

   PORT-AU-PRINCE, March 3 (AP) -- Haiti's key rebel leader promised
Wednesday his forces would lay down their arms after 1,000 U.S. Marines
began patrolling the impoverished capital to restore order and prepare for
the arrival of international peacekeepers.
   If Guy Philippe, a rebel boss and former police chief, can make good on
his vow, it would mark the end of the rebellion that broke out Feb. 5,
drove President Jean-Bertrand Aristide into African exile Sunday and left
at least 130 Haitians dead.
   The 15-nation Caribbean Community, meanwhile, refused to join an
international peacekeeping force in Haiti and called for an independent
international inquiry into Aristide's allegations that he was forced out
office by the United States.
   Jamaican Prime Minister P.J. Patterson said CARICOM was "extremely
disappointed" at the involvement of "Western partners" in the hasty
departure of Aristide. He charged that the U.N. Security Council had
ignored an urgent Caribbean appeal to it on Thursday to send peacekeepers
to Haiti before Aristide was forced out.
   Aristide remained in the Central African Republic, where he had been
flown to exile in a U.S.-government-chartered jet, unable so far to find a
country that will grant him permanent residence.
   The Marines moved out of their bivouac at the presidential palace
Wednesday in a first reconnaissance mission since they began arriving on
Sunday. They walked and drove machine-gun mounted Humvees 30 blocks over
trash-strewn streets.
   The troops used their vehicles and their hands to push burned cars from
roadways and riflemen watched the streets for any signs of resistance.
Encountering none, the Marines returned to the palace that had been the
seat Aristide's power before his departure Sunday, marking the second time
he had been deposed from power.
   The death toll in the rebellion has continued to rise despite Aristide's
ouster, reaching at least 130 Wednesday as workers at the Port-au-Prince
hospital said an additional 30 bodies had been brought to the morgue since
Sunday.
   Col. Mark Gurganis, 49, commander of the U.S. troops in Haiti, told
reporters he and other U.S. officials asked Philippe during a meeting
Wednesday "to honor what he said he was going to do and lay down his arms."
   Holding out the hope that the spasms of violence would now end, Philippe
said rebels wanted peace.
   "Now that there are foreign troops promising to protect the Haitian
people ... and they have given the guarantee to protect the Haitian people
... we will lay down our arms," Philippe told a news conference.
   Some of his fighters looked on glumly as Philippe said: "This may be the
last statement that we're giving here in the name of the Liberation Front."
   One of the rebels said, however, there was no question fighters would
obey orders.
   "Sure, some of us may not be happy about the decision to lay down arms,
but we are army," said Francois Ferdinand, 44, a 12-year army veteran. "We
have a hierarchy, commanding officers and we'll always obey orders."
   The rebels then abandoned the former army headquarters, which they moved
into upon arriving in the capital on Monday.
   The rebels have said they want to rebuild the army, which Aristide
disbanded in 1995, a year after he was returned to power by 20,000 U.S.
troops. He had been deposed in a military coup in 1991 after becoming
Haiti's first democratically elected leader in 200 years of independence.
   Also Wednesday, Haiti's political opposition met with interim President
Boniface Alexandre, demanding that he dismiss and perhaps arrest Prime
Minister Yvon Neptune -- a top member of Aristide's Lavalas party.
   Alexandre, making his first address to the nation since the former
Supreme Court chief justice was sworn in on Sunday, said "I did not ask for
this position but I gladly accept it because ... it is every Haitian's
responsibility to search for solutions to the current crisis."
   Referring to the rebels as "patriotic men of honor," he asked them to
disarm and help rebuild Haiti, the Western hemisphere's poorest nation. He
also asked Aristide loyalists to rid themslves of weapons, assuring them of
a role in rebuilding Haiti.
   Neptune estimated damage due to looting and pillaging during the
rebellion at $300 million. He declared a state of emergency. But given the
current lack of government control, it was unclear what affect, if any,
such a declaration would have.
   Foreigners, Haitian-Americans and a few Haitians who had been trapped in
Haiti by flight cancellations began trickling into the capital's
international airport to catch the first commercial flights from the island
since many airlines suspended service last week.
   Earlier Wednesday, rebels and militant Aristide loyalists fought a
running gunbattle that lasted an hour in La Saline, a slum near the looted
seaport. Three people were killed, Radio Metropole reported.
   With 1,000 Marines on the ground amid a heavily armed population, the
Pentagon said the U.S. forces did not plan to engage armed Haitian fighters
unless fired upon.
   According to the Pentagon, the Marines' mission was to contribute to a
secure environment in Port-Au-Prince and promote a constitutional political
process after Aristide's resignation.
   They also must help with the delivery of humanitarian aid, as needed,
and protect U.S. citizens in Haiti "as may be required," according to a
Pentagon statement released Sunday as the Marines were deployed.
   The Marines are not mandated to seek out rebel forces to disarm or
otherwise engage them, and there was no intent to get involved in stopping
looting or other crimes, U.S. officials said.
   But on Tuesday afternoon Marines flexed their might when rebels drove up
to the airport in a pickup and an SUV and announced they were looking for
Neptune, the prime minister, and other officials. The Marines came out the
airport compound in two Humvees mounted with .50-caliber machine-guns. The
rebels quickly left, Staff Sgt. Christopher Smith.
   "As soon as we rolled up, they beat it out of there," Smith said
Wednesday.
   Smith said he was eager to move into the streets.
   "We're here for a purpose. Just like police anywhere, we're here to do a
job, and we're not getting it done just sitting here at the airport," he
said, holding a shotgun loaded with non-lethal beanbag rounds.
   Opponents accused Aristide of breaking promises to help the poor and
masterminding attacks on opponents by armed gangs -- charges he denied.
   He was staying in the presidential palace in the Central African
Republic, the African country's foreign minister, Charles Wenezoui said.
   "Aristide really likes to read" and has slept a lot, said Wenezoui.
"We're about to give him a television and satellite dish so that he can
monitor news around the world." ------
   Associated Press writers Paisley Dodds and Ian James in Port-au-Prince
contributed to this report.