An Interim President for Haiti Is Sworn In

Monday, March 8, 2004
By Lydia Polgreen & Tim Weiner

New York Times Writers

The country's new police chief, Léon Charles, a former Haitian Coast Guard commander, said in an interview on Monday that disarming militants on both sides of the conflict is one of his top priorities. Mr. Charles must also rebuild a force corrupted by Colombian drug traffickers, who pay millions of dollars a year to Haitian officials to ship cocaine through Haiti to the United States, the State Department says.

Crowds backing the exiled president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, pursued American marines in Port-au-Prince on Monday, telling them to go away and shouting "You kidnapped our president!" and "Aristide, five years!"

Image Credit: Michael Kamber -- Polaris, for NYT

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti -- NYT
Interim President Boniface Alexandre was installed in the National Palace in a brief, awkward ceremony on Monday, as hundreds of supporters of Haiti's exiled president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, marched through the capital, chanting "Aristide or death!"

A power struggle continued in the city's streets and its salons with the search for a new prime minister, a day after Aristide loyalists opened fire on anti-Aristide demonstrators near the presidential palace. Six people were killed and about 30 wounded. United States marines said on Monday that their return fire had killed one gunman.

The United States ambassador, James B. Foley, called the deaths of opposition marchers and a foreign journalist tragic, but praised the actions of the marines and French troops, saying the city's security situation was rapidly improving.

"It is really a matter of time before the multinational interim force is able to exercise authority over the entire city," Mr. Foley said in an interview on Monday with The New York Times. "Each day we are stronger and each day we are in a better position to provide security."

A police officer went after a looter on Monday at an industrial park in Port-au-Prince, where a power struggle continued.

Image Credit: Michael Kamber -- Polaris for NYT

In his first public appearance since Mr. Aristide fled Feb. 29, Mr. Alexandre called on Haitians to unite for the good of the nation.

"We are all brothers and sisters," Mr. Alexandre said, his voice unsteady, as he read from a prepared text, his eyes never leaving the paper. "We are all in the same boat. If it sinks, we all sink together."

Mr. Alexandre, as Haiti's chief justice, became interim president under a constitutional provision for the top judge to fill any vacancy in the presidency, with Parliament's approval. But the legislature was disbanded in January, so he has not been approved.

The United States is hoping for a stable, pro-American provisional government to emerge from eight days of struggle following President Aristide's departure under American pressure and on an American aircraft.

(More: NYTimes.com / International)

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