19977: (Chamberlain) AP: Haiti (later story) (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

   By IAN JAMES
 and
 PAISLEY DODDS

   PORT-AU-PRINCE, March 7 (AP) -- Thousands of Haitians marched through
downtown Port-au-Prince on Sunday, celebrating the exile of President
Jean-Bertrand Aristide and demanding he be put on trial. A pro-Aristide
march also was planned.
   Dozens of U.S. and French troops and Haitian police -- armed with
machine guns and a tear gas launcher -- guarded the demonstration route,
ready for threatened clashes between the rival camps. The two sides have
clashed in the past, and Sunday set the stage for renewed violence.
   Rebel leader Guy Philippe joined the demonstration, and some in the
crowd hoisted him onto their shoulders, chanting "Guy Philippe -- hero!
Aristide -- zero!" People ran alongside, stretching to grab his hand or
just touch him.
   "Philippe, the country is with you!" protesters shouted. There also were
cheers for Louis-Jodel Chamblain, an ex-soldier convicted in the killings
of Aristide supporters. The two signed autographs for people in the crowd.
   The air in the capital was full of the sound of hymns and clapping from
Sunday church services but also the stench of the state morgue, not
refrigerated from a lack of electricity and overcrowded with more than 200
bodies from the rebel insurgency that drove Aristide to flee exactly a week
ago.
   A morgue worker said the latest bodies -- two men with gunshot wounds --
were brought in Friday, more evidence that the death toll is rising and
latest round of bloodshed in this troubled Caribbean nation is not over.
   Philippe, a former police chief who has been accused of coup-plotting,
reiterated Sunday that he had no political aspirations.
   Rebels have refused to give up their weapons despite a disarmament
pledge Wednesday by Philippe, though there were no guns in sight Sunday.
Marines have faced hostility -- so far, only shouted insults -- from armed
pro-Aristide militants furious over their leader's ouster and what they
consider an "occupation" by foreign troops.
   Sunday's crowd also took up a cry of "Help, yes. Occupation, no!"
   It swelled quickly to thousands who ran and danced through the city,
chanting, "Try Aristide! Jail Aristide!"
   Businessman Liastaud Michel, 56, called the event "a victory march ...
to celebrate. We want things to change."
   Outside Port-au-Prince, where U.S. Special Forces and French
legionnaires have deployed, rebels groups including a former street gang
and ex-soldiers of the army disbanded by Aristide insist they will not
surrender their weapons until the peacekeepers disarm pro-Aristide
militants.
   "In terms of where the guns are and who we will surrender them to,
that's a secret," rebel commander Winter Etienne told The Associated Press
on Saturday. "When you lay down your arms you always want to have them
someplace where you can pick them up again if you need them."
   He spoke at a street corner in the rebel-held city of Gonaives, where
the insurgency started Feb. 5. Rebel fighters nearby set a raging fire and
offered scraps of metal and herbs to Ogun Feray, the Voodoo god of war, a
potent sign of Haiti's still violence atmosphere.
   In the northern port city Cap-Haitien, Philippe's stronghold, rebels
also told the AP they had received no message from their leader to disarm.
Residents said armed rebels still roam the city at night, though some said
the rebels had prevented looting and homes being burned.
   In the tiny town of Mont Rouis, just north of Port-au-Prince, a French
combat helicopter landed Saturday, drawing hundreds of curious onlookers.
Also, about 60 Canadian soldiers arrived Saturday, adding to nearly 2,000
foreign troops now in Haiti, including 130 Chileans.
   The challenge of disarmament is just one of many stumbling blocks facing
the impoverished Caribbean nation.
   A recently appointed seven-member "Council of Sages" was to meet for a
third day Sunday in the capital to choose a new prime minister. Officials
said they hoped to have a decision by Tuesday.
   One possibility is Lt. Gen. Herard Abraham, probably the only Haitian
army officer to voluntarily surrender power to a civilian. Abraham
succeeded ousted Gen. Prosper Avril in 1990 and immediately handed power to
Haiti's Supreme Court justice. That allowed the transition that led to
Haiti's first free elections in December 1990, which Aristide won in a
landslide.
   Another choice is Smarck Michel, a businessman who was Aristide's prime
minister in 1994-1995 but resigned over differences in economic policy.
   The U.S. Marine presence is the third American military intervention in
Haiti, which has suffered under civilian and military dictators since a
slave rebellion won independence from France in 1804.
   The United States sent troops in 1915 who occupied the country for 25
years. In 1994, 20,000 troops came to end a brutal military dictatorship,
halt an exodus of boat people to Florida and restore Aristide, who had been
ousted in 1991.
   Aristide was a wildly popular slum priest when he became Haiti's first
freely elected leader in 1990. But his popularity diminished after he was
re-elected in 2000. Haitians said he failed to improve their lives,
condoned corruption and used police and armed supporters to attack his
political opponents. ------
   Associated Press writer Joseph B. Frazier contributed to this report
from Cap-Haitien.