19986: (Chamberlain) Thousands celebrate end of Aristide reign (later story) (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

     By Ibon Villelabeitia and Joseph Guyler Delva

     PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti, March 7 (Reuters) - Thousands of Haitians
celebrated the fall of Jean-Bertrand Aristide on Sunday in a jubilant
parade through the capital where they chanted "We want justice" and called
for the ex-president to be put in prison.
     Revelers hoisted Guy Philippe, the leader of a ragtag band of rebels
who helped oust Aristide, on their shoulders at the head of a noisy march,
shouting "Philippe, Philippe!" Another rebel commander, former death squad
chief Louis Jodel Chamblain, signed autographs.
     Battle-ready U.S. Marines sitting in machine gun-equipped Humvees,
French troops and Haitian National Police in riot gear watched the
demonstrators as they rallied in the upscale suburb of Petionville and
headed toward the National Palace.
     "We want the international community to know that we want peace,"
Philippe said after flashing a "V" for victory sign to the crowd.
     An expected counterdemonstration in support of Aristide, the hero of
Haitian democracy accused by foes of corruption and human rights abuses,
failed to materialize by early afternoon.
     Across town, looters hit an industrial area near the airport. Two
women were wounded by gunfire as police tried to halt the looting.
     Aristide, a former Roman Catholic priest who became a champion of
Haiti's impoverished masses when he helped overthrow the brutal Duvalier
family dictatorship in 1986, was chased from his impoverished Caribbean
homeland on Feb. 29 by a bloody revolt that killed more than 200 people and
by pressure from the United States and other foreign nations.
     "Aristide criminal! Prison for Aristide!" the revelers chanted, waving
Haitian flags, singing, clapping, punching fists in the air and honking
horns.
     In pickup trucks, on bicycles and motorcycles and on foot, a crowd
estimated at more than 3,000 moved through the garbage-strewn streets of
Port-au-Prince, swaying to blaring music, worshiping the rebel leaders like
rock stars and hurling insults at the departed president.
     "We need democracy in Haiti. Aristide was a drug trafficker and his
regime violated human rights," said protester Harry Adeclat, a 38-year-old
doctor.
     From his exile in the Central African Republic, Aristide has claimed
he was kidnapped by U.S. forces, an allegation the U.S. government denied.
     "We don't want Aristide back," said Charles Baker, a leader of a
political opposition movement. "Aristide is gone but he is still leading
the government."
     Baker said foes of the ex-president were pushing for the quick
formation of a new government. A council of elders was choosing a prime
minister to replace Yvon Neptune, an Aristide ally who is expected to be
pushed aside early this week.
     Aristide's supporters stayed relatively quiet during the first
tumultuous days after he was flown out of Haiti, claiming they were being
hunted by rebel forces who swarmed into the capital in triumph.
     That ended on Friday when thousands poured out of the Port-au-Prince
slums of La Saline and Cite Soleil to march on the U.S. Embassy and the
palace, hurling slurs at U.S. Marines and calling U.S. President George W.
Bush a terrorist.
     The calls for competing demonstrations on Sunday raised concerns of a
renewal of the looting and killing that gripped Haiti before and after
Aristide's departure.
     Despite a pledge by Philippe to lay down arms, no weapons had been
turned in to the police or multinational forces, which numbered about 2,300
Americans, French, Chileans and Canadians by Sunday.
     The council of elders named to help form a new government broke from a
daylong meeting on Saturday without naming a prime minister, a task
expected to be completed this week.
     Among the top candidates are Smarck Michel, a businessman who served
as prime minister in 1994 and 1995 but ultimately broke with Aristide over
differences in economic policy, former Haitian army Gen. Herard Abraham,
former Foreign Minister Gerard Latortue and Axan Abellard of the Center for
Free Enterprise and Democracy.

  (Additional reporting by Amy Bracken)