20058: (Chamberlain) Aristide calls for calm after six killed (later story) (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

     By Jim Loney and Ibon Villelabeitia

     PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti, March 8 (Reuters) - Exiled Haitian leader
Jean-Bertrand Aristide appealed to his supporters to peacefully resist an
"occupation" of Haiti on Monday, a day after blazing gunfire killed at
least six people in a huge demonstration in Port-au-Prince celebrating his
ouster.
     U.S. Marines, grappling to restore order in the chaotic Caribbean
nation as part of an international peace keeping force, rumbled on
machine-gun mounted vehicles through the sprawling city's tense streets
early on Monday.
     Hundreds of ragged slum-dwellers looted an industrial park near the
capital's airport. Haitian National Police Chief Leonce Charles said his
officers were going to raid neighborhoods and disarm fighters with illegal
weapons.
     "After this (yesterday's shooting), we're going to send out the
message to let the people know any illegal weapons will not be tolerated,"
he said.
     At the National Palace, across the square from Sunday's bloodshed,
President Boniface Alexandre, wearing a blue, yellow and red sash, was
formally installed as new president behind closed doors under heavy guard
by foreign troops.
     Minutes after the ceremony for Alexandre, a former Chief Justice,
hundreds of Aristide supporters poured out of the slums and crowded the
streets in front of the palace demanding Aristide's return.
     The White House scolded Aristide for insisting from exile in Africa
that he was still the president of his Caribbean country and warned him not
to stir up divisions there.
     "Mr. Aristide has resigned his office and has left the country. And
now the Haitian people are involved with grasping democracy and moving
forward on an interim government," White House spokesman Trent Duffy
said."And any comments that would stir up more division are not helpful, as
the Haitian people move towards a greater democracy."
     In the Central African Republic, where he has been since he was
bundled out of office a week ago by an armed revolt and under foreign
pressure, Aristide repeated a claim U.S. forces abducted him, which the
United States denies. "I am the elected president and I remain the elected
president," he added.
     Sunday's shooting by suspected militant Aristide loyalists -- the
worst day of violence since Aristide fled to Africa -- prompted U.S. troops
to open fire for the first time since they arrived at the start of an
international mission to quell looting and killings.
     "Marines engaged the gunmen. One of them was killed, the other fled.
It is unknown whether or not he was wounded," U.S. Marine Col. Mark
Gurganus, commander of U.S. forces in Haiti, told reporters. Gurganus said
Marines returned fire from within the palace grounds after two gunmen shot
at the palace.
     More than 200 people have been killed in the impoverished former
French colony since the revolt erupted on Feb. 5 in the western city of
Gonaives, begun by a street gang who were later joined by former soldiers
and paramilitaries.
     Appearing for the first time in public since arriving in the Central
African Republic a week ago, Aristide was flanked by his wife and the
Central African Republic foreign minister.
     "The fact is there was a political abduction," Aristide told reporters
in the capital Bangui.
     "This unfortunately has paved the way for occupation and ... we launch
an appeal for peaceful resistance (in Haiti)," said Aristide, looking
composed in a dark blue suit. "I'm choosing my words carefully: for a
peaceful resistance."
     Aristide, a once popular former Roman Catholic priest who championed
Haiti's emergence into democracy more than a decade ago, fled on Feb. 29
after rebels closed in on the capital and the United States and France
urged him to quit.
     Eyewitnesses said that on Sunday pro-Aristide militias armed with
automatic weapons sprayed gunfire from rooftops and pickups into a crowd of
thousands of jubilant and unarmed revelers celebrating Aristide's downfall.
     A Spanish journalist was one of those killed in the shooting, which
fanned political tensions as a council of elders is expected to pick a new
prime minister this week.
     Rebel leader Guy Philippe, who had promised to lay down arms after
Aristide's departure, told his men late on Sunday to "stay alert" and to
protect the "Haitian people." Aristide's supporters accuse rebel troops of
conducting reprisal raids in the capital's slums, home to thousands of
Aristide supporters.
     "The foreign troops gave me the guarantee that they would protect the
people and disarm the chimeres," he said, using the name given to militant
Aristide supporters. "If they fail to do that I am ready to order my men to
take back the weapons and disarm the chimeres and protect the population,"
he said.
     Philippe, who was hoisted on shoulders by jubilant supporters during
Sunday's march, wants to re-establish Haiti's army, disbanded by Aristide
in 1995. Washington opposes this and says the rebels should disarm and
disband.
     The international peace force, which includes U.S., French, Chilean
and Canadian troops number about 2,300, but looting and violence continue
in the poorest country in the hemisphere.

     (Additional reporting by Andrew Gray in Bangui and Joseph Guyler Delva
and Amy Bracken in Haiti)