20078: (Chamberlain) AP: Haiti (later story) (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

   By PAISLEY DODDS

   PORT-AU-PRINCE, March 8 (AP) -- Haiti's interim president took the reins
of his country's shattered government Monday as supporters of Jean-Bertrand
Aristide shouted demands for the ousted leader's return.
   U.S. Marines acknowledged they killed one of seven people gunned down in
weekend violence -- the first armed action of the Americans' week-old
mission to stabilize the troubled nation.
   Military helicopters circled overhead and U.S. Marines in armored cars
patrolled the streets Monday outside the National Palace as Boniface
Alexandre was formally installed.
   "Aristide or death!" Aristide supporters yelled at the gates of the
palace during the ceremony, their shouts carrying into the room where
Alexandre urged his countrymen to remain calm.
   "We are all brothers and sisters," said Alexandre, who has served as
president for a week and was officially sworn in Feb. 29. "We are all in
the same boat, and if it sinks, it sinks with all of us."
   Earlier, Aristide declared from his African exile that he was still
president of Haiti and urged "peaceful resistance" in his homeland.
   "I am the democratically elected president and I remain so. I plead for
the restoration of democracy," Aristide said from Bangui, Central African
Republic, in his first public appearance since he fled Haiti Feb. 29 aboard
a plane chartered by the U.S. government.
   Aristide said his departure was a "political kidnapping (that)
unfortunately opened the road to an occupation."
   The United States denies Aristide's charge that he was forced to step
down. But the 15-nation Caribbean Community has called for an international
investigation.
   In Washington, State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said, "If Mr.
Aristide really wants to serve his country, he really has to, we think, let
his nation get on with the future and not try to stir up the past again."
   U.S. Marines and French Legionnaires have been in Haiti since Aristide's
departure, the vanguard of a U.N. force to restore peace to the country,
where a monthlong rebellion left more than 130 dead. Reprisal killings
continue.
   On Monday, hundreds of people ransacked Port-au-Prince's industrial
park, carrying away wood paneling, toilets, even a plastic Mickey Mouse.
One looter wore the top part of horse costume on his head as he made off
with a mirror. The looting took place less than half a mile from the
international airport where U.S. Marines have set up base.
   Alexandre urged people "to keep calm. No one has the right to do justice
by themselves."
   Monday's pro-Aristide demonstration was mostly peaceful, a sharp
contrast to the massive anti-Aristide protest Sunday in which seven people
were killed, including a foreign journalist.
   U.S. Marines acknowledged Monday they killed one Haitian at Sunday's
demonstration. "He had a gun and he was shooting at Marines," Col. Charles
Gurganus told reporters Monday.
   The violence, the worst bloodshed since Aristide fled, led both
opponents and supporters of Aristide to threaten armed action, damaging
efforts to reach a frail peace.
   Chief rebel leader Guy Philippe said Sunday's attack never would have
happened if his men had not been asked to lay down their arms. He warned
Monday that "I will reunite my men and take up arms" if the peacekeepers
did not disarm Aristide loyalists blamed for Sunday's attack.
   Ignoring Aristide's claims to Haiti's leadership, a recently appointed
seven-member Council of Sages was interviewing three top candidates for
prime minister Monday, to replace Aristide appointee Yvon Neptune.
   The new premier, whom the council hoped to name on Tuesday, would form a
transitional government from Aristide's Lavalas party and a disparate
opposition coalition.
   The candidates are:
   -- Businessman Smarck Michel, Aristide's prime minister in 1994-1995 who
resigned over differences in economic policy.
   -- Retired Lt. Gen. Herard Abraham, who is probably the only Haitian
army officer to voluntarily surrender power to a civilian, in 1990. He
allowed the transition that led to Haiti's first free elections in December
1990, which Aristide won in a landslide.
   -- Gerard Latortue, a former U.N. official and an international business
consultant who was foreign minister in 1988 to former President Leslie
Manigat. Manigat was toppled in one of the 32 coups fomented by Haiti's
army, which ousted Aristide in 1991 and was disbanded after 20,000 troops
came to Haiti in 1994 to halt an exodus of boat people to Florida and
restore democracy.
   Aristide was a wildly popular slum priest, elected on promises to
champion the poor who make up the vast majority of Haiti's 8 million
people. But he has lost support, with Haitians saying he failed to improve
their lives, condoned corruption and used police and armed supporters to
attack his political opponents.
   ------
   Associated Press writers Ian James and Peter Prengaman contributed to
this report from Port-au-Prince.