21492: (Chamberlain) Rebel leader surrenders (new story) (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

   By MICHELLE FAUL

   PORT-AU-PRINCE, April 22 (AP) -- Proclaiming his innocence, a rebel
commander convicted of killing supporters of ousted President Jean-Bertrand
Aristide surrendered to justice officials Thursday.
   Louis-Jodel Chamblain's surrender came as a conference for international
donors opened in Port-au-Prince. Haiti's government hopes to get millions
of dollars in aid to rebuild the shattered country, which is reeling from a
revolt that ousted Aristide on Feb. 29.
   To a few cheers from a curious crowd, Chamblain said his conviction in
absentia in 2000 was politically motivated and predicted he would be
vindicated. Under Haitian law, those convicted in absentia are entitled to
another trial when they return to the country.
   Chamblain was accompanied by Haiti's interim Justice Minister Bernard
Gousse, who called the surrender a "noble decision."
   Chamblain denied the country's U.S.-backed interim government pressured
him to surrender.
   "I am ready to give myself up as a prisoner -- to give Haiti a chance so
we can build this democracy I have been fighting for," said Chamblain.
   It was unclear when Chamblain would go before a judge.
   Human rights groups have criticized the government for forming alliances
with known criminals, like Chamblain, while it persecutes Aristide
supporters.
   But some Haitian human rights activists said Thursday that liberation
often comes at a cost.
   "We Haitians don't get to choose our heroes," said human rights activist
and former Culture Minister Claude Bajeux. "The international community ...
doesn't understand why (Haitian) people were so happy to see the rebels
come, even if they include criminals."
   Chamblain could be pardoned by Haiti's president or a national assembly,
a possibility that worries New York-based Human Rights Watch.
   "We welcome the surrender," said Joanne Mariner of Human Rights Watch.
"We would welcome his incarceration. Our concern would be ... he won't stay
in prison very long."
   Chamblain fled to the neighboring Dominican Republic when a U.S.
military intervention restored Aristide to power in 1994.
   He returned in February to help lead the rebellion that forced Aristide
to flee under pressure from the United States and France.
   Chamblain, a former army sergeant, allegedly ran death squads for
dictator Jean-Claude "Baby Doc" Duvalier and was a leader of the Front for
the Advancement of Progress of the Haitian People -- a paramilitary group
blamed for killing some 3,000 civilians in the 1990s.
   He was convicted in absentia for his roles in the 1993 assassination of
Aristide financier Antoine Izmery, who was dragged from a church and shot
in the head, and the 1994 slaughter of several Aristide supporters in
northern Gonaives, where Haiti's latest revolt erupted Feb. 5.
   Others accused of human rights abuses, like Jean-Pierre Baptiste, also
implicated in the 1994 Gonaives killings, are expected to surrender as
well.
   But the revolt prompted an exodus of police and judges loyal to
Aristide, crippling Haiti's judicial system.
   The country's new leaders hope to rebuild it with help from abroad.
   "I am going to ask you to make exceptional efforts, to go beyond the
usual procedures," to help Haiti, interim Prime Minister Gerard Latortue
said at Thursday's donor conference. He was to travel to the Dominican
Republic on Friday for meeting with President Hipolito Mejia.
   The United Nations, which is to begin a broad-based mission in June, has
only received a fraction of the $35 million it appealed for last month in
emergency relief.
   "We have to show that we have the possibility to help the Haitian
people, and I hope that between now and June we will have good news for the
Haitian people," U.S. Ambassador James Foley said at the donor conference,
which was attended by the United States, Chile, Japan, Canada and an array
of international monetary institutions.