19935: (Chamberlain) Aristide supporters warn fight for Haiti not over (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

     By Ibon Villelabeitia

    PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti, March 6 (Reuters) - Anger simmered among
supporters of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide in the Port-au-Prince slums
on Saturday nearly a week after he fled to Africa, while Haiti's council of
elders worked to pick a new prime minister for the impoverished Caribbean
country.
     "We are going to burn down the palace with the Americans inside," said
Jean Enzo, a resident of the slums where Aristide built a power base as a
firebrand Roman Catholic priest two decades ago. "We have weapons and we
are ready to fight."
     The harsh words and a huge demonstration by Aristide supporters on
Friday showed Haiti's poor masses were not ready to give up on their
elected president, who was pushed from office on Sunday by a bloody revolt
and foreign pressure.
     Aristide, from exile in the Central African Republic, has repeatedly
said he was kidnapped. The death toll in the monthlong rebellion has
swelled to more than 200.
     "If they don't bring the president back, there's going to be a lot of
blood," said Jean Gustave, near the ruins of St. Jean Bosco, the church
where Aristide railed against Haiti's Duvalier family dictatorship in the
mid-1980s.
     Aristide supporters promised daily demonstrations to protest the
ouster of Haiti's first freely elected president, who won a second term in
office in 2000 but was pushed out by armed rebels and political opponents
who accused him of corruption and human rights violations.
     The council of "wise men" chosen on Friday to help pick a new
government includes only one member of Aristide's Lavalas family movement,
which had dominated the government. Four are from the political opposition
and two are from churches.
     The council appeared to have settled on top candidates to replace
Prime Minister Yvon Neptune, an Aristide ally.
     They included a former prime minister, Smarck Michel, who held the
post during 1994 and 1995 after a U.S.-led intervention force of 20,000
troops restored Aristide to power following three years in exile.
     Michel, a businessman, ultimately broke with Aristide over differences
in economic policy. His businesses near the airport were looted this week.
     Also mentioned are former Haitian army Gen. Herard Abraham, former
foreign minister Gerard Latortue and Axan Abellard of the Center for Free
Enterprise and Democracy. The new prime minister could be named on Sunday
or Monday, officials say.
     As the political effort plodded ahead, U.S. special forces moved into
territory held by the rebels, including Gonaives, where the rebellion
erupted on Feb. 5, and Cap-Haitien, the second-largest city.
     The U.N.-approved multinational force sent to restore order includes
U.S., French, Chilean and Canadian troops, numbers about 2,000 and was
expected to grow to about 5,000.
     The Pan American Health Organization said Port-au-Prince's main
hospital was holding nearly 200 bodies of victims of violence since the
revolt's outbreak, taking the death toll much higher than previous
estimates of about 100 nationwide.
     With U.S. and French troops and the National Police on patrol, the
capital had calmed after the looting and shooting surrounding Aristide's
departure. But aid agencies struggled to move food amid reports that
hundreds were turning up at health centers in search of supplies.
     "A lot of people are suffering because of the security situation,"
said Alejandro Chicheri of the World Food Program. He said the WFP hoped to
send a convoy north next week but the roads were still too dangerous.
     After five days of lying low amid reports of reprisal killings, a huge
crowd of Aristide's rabid supporters burst out of the slums on Friday to
demand his return and hurl slurs at U.S. Marines and denounce President
George W. Bush.
     "George Bush kidnapped our president and we want him back," Gustave
said on Saturday.

  (Additional reporting by Joseph Guyler Delva)