Haitian Rebels Enter Capital; Aristide Bitter

Monday, March 1, 2004
By Tim Weiner & Lydia Polgreen

New York Times Writers

The new faces of leadership included a well-spoken man near the pool at El Rancho, with an M-4 assault weapon strapped around his neck, who gave his name as Faustin. He said he was an industrial engineer educated in the United States.

"Right now it's very euphoric; everybody's happy," he said. "But behind that happiness, look out." He said he had killed former Aristide supporters in the streets of Port-au-Prince in the last month, and would kill again in the name of the new government if so ordered. "I'm not a loose cannon," he said. "I report to someone -- but I won't tell you who."

The Haitian rebel leader Guy Philippe, right, driving into Port-au-Prince on Monday with his soldiers.

Image Credit: The Associated Press

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti -- NYT
Armed rebels swept into this capital on Monday and occupied the national police headquarters, staking a claim to power as United States forces kept watch at the international airport and the presidential palace.

A wave of dancing, cheering people following the rebel leaders flooded the boulevard to the palace minutes after the police headquarters was occupied.

No clear leader took charge. The chief justice of the Supreme Court, Boniface Alexandre, was sworn in on Sunday as the leader of a transitional government until elections in 2005. Under Haiti's Constitution, the legislature is supposed to ratify Mr. Alexandre's succession, but there is no legislature, owing to the breakdown of the government.

The deposed president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, landed in a temporary exile in the Central African Republic. He said he had been overthrown by the United States, a charge dismissed by the White House as "complete nonsense."

President Bush convened a meeting of the National Security Council on Monday to discuss a multinational peacekeeping force to take over within a few months from United States marines who landed here on Sunday.

France and Canada have pledged to help police Haiti. The United States is also discussing contributions from Caribbean nations, Brazil, Chile and Argentina.

Secretary of State Colin L. Powell said an international force could install a "responsive, functioning, noncorrupt" government.

He said the armed rebel leaders include "individuals we would not want to see re-enter civil society in Haiti because of their past records, and this is something we will have to work through."

At least four men identified by witnesses as supporters of the deposed president were found shot dead on the edge of town, three of them bound at the wrists.

The rebels, followed by throngs of cheering supporters, also occupied the former headquarters of the Haitian Army, vowing to revive the military, a force known for brutality. Several rebel leaders are former members of the Haitian Army and affiliated death squads.

The army overthrew Mr. Aristide in 1991 and ran a violent junta until 1994. United States armed forces reinstated the president, who then disbanded the Haitian military.

Now that he is gone, the army may be back. In the rebels' ranks at the old army headquarters was Paul Arcelin, 60, who identified himself as a former ambassador to the Dominican Republic and "an adviser to the Haitian Army."

"This is our headquarters," he said. "The army has come back. We don't need peacekeepers."

(More: NYTimes.com / International)

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