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Haiti's rebel leader reveals plan to arrest PM

Neptune evacuated by helicopter

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti: Rebel leader Guy Philippe yesterday declared himself the new chief of Haiti's military, which was disbanded by ousted president Jean-Bertrand Aristide, and said he would arrest Prime Minister Yvon Neptune. "The country is in my hands!" Philippe announced on Radio Signal FM. He summoned 20 police commanders to meet with him Tuesday and warned that if they failed to appear he would arrest them. US Marines guarded Neptune's office in Petionville suburb, where Philippe was headed with hundreds of supporters in convoy impeded by adoring and cheering crowds who walked alongside. Local radio reported that Neptune was evacuated by helicopter. His whereabouts were not immediately known, and it was unclear if US or French Marines would try to protect him. Neptune is a top member of Aristide's Lavalas party and his former presidential spokesman.

In a phone call to an AP reporter, Philippe said he intended to arrest Neptune on corruption charges. With the abrupt departure of Aristide on Sunday, the rebels appeared to be taking advantage of a power vacuum, even as the United States and France beefed up their military presence in the Caribbean country. Shortly before Philippe announced his intentions in a call to an AP reporter, he appeared on the second-floor balcony of the colonnaded former army headquarters as hundreds of cheering onlookers stood outside. A burly rebel standing next to Philippe urged them to accompany the rebel chief to Neptune's house. "Arrest Neptune!" the crowd chanted. Speaking in Washington, Assistant US Secretary of State Roger Noriega dismissed Philippe's power to do much of anything. "He is not in control of anything but a ragtag band of people," Noriega told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

The buildup of the international presence in Haiti will make Philippe's role "less and less central in Haitian life. And I think he will probably want to make himself scarce," Noriega said. "We have sent that message to him. He obviously hasn't received it," Noriega said. But Philippe, who arrived in Port-au-Prince in a rebel convoy on Monday, apparently plans on transforming his fighters into a reconstituted Haitian army, which Aristide disbanded in 1995. Execution-style killings continued in the seaside, fetid capital. At least one more body showed up Tuesday on streets still littered with charred barricades set up by militant Aristide supporters who had rampaged and looted the capital before he fled. A preteen boy with a bullet hole in the head lay by a market square. Residents said he may have been shot for looting.

Looting, meanwhile, continued at the seaport, even though US Marines were patrolling the area. More than 100 people died in the three-week rebellion and reprisal killings that, combined with pressure from the United States and France, led Aristide to flee. Politicians and rebels in Port-au-Prince have made no public comment on Aristide's charges Monday that the United States forced him out of power — charges strongly denied by US officials. Philippe, flanked by other rebel leaders and senior officers of Haiti's police force, announced to reporters "I am the chief," then clarified, "the military chief." He reiterated that "I am not interested in politics," indicating he was not looking to install another military dictatorship in Haiti. Philippe said he was ready to follow the orders of interim president Boniface Alexandre, the chief justice of the Supreme Court who was installed on Sunday. As if he would disarm if asked, he said, "We will." Chile said it was sending 120 special forces to Haiti today, the first part of a contingent of 300 Chileans to join an international security force authorised Sunday by the UN Security Council.

Caricom leaders tight-lipped on Haiti

Up until late last night there was no official word on Haiti from inside the conference room as Caricom leaders remained huddled behind closed doors in Kingston, Jamaica where they met to discuss, in emergency session, the Haitian crisis. And conflicting reports continued to surround the ouster of Haitian president Jean Bertrand Aristide. Officials from the 15-member Caribbean Community have expressed concern following Aristide's claim that he was forcibly removed Sunday by US forces and put on a plane to Africa — a charge the US has flatly denied.

"If he was forced to leave, then it was a coup d'etat, and in our region we don't tolerate coups d'etat," declared Guyana president Bharat Jagdeo. Caribbean Secretary-General, Edwain Carrington said: "This is a very difficult period for us and I hope we come through this without any lasting damage to Caricom." Asked if leaders would consider suspending Haiti, Trinidad and Tobago's Prime Minister, Patrick Manning said, "we're not ruling it out." Haiti joined Caricom as a full member in 2002. No country has ever been suspended from the grouping which was established in 1973. Caricom chairman, Prime Minister Percival Patterson said he would have "great difficulty" holding talks with rebel leaders should they form part of Haiti's new government.

Yesterday's summit was attended by the following leaders, who are seated from left: Trinidad and Tobago's Foreign Affairs Minister, Knowlson Gift; Prime Minister Patrick Manning; Bahamas Foreign Minister Frederick Mitchell; Bahamas Prime Minister Perry Christie; Jamaica's Prime Minister Percival Patterson, the current chairman of Caricom; Caricom secretary general, Edwin Carrington; Caricom assistant secretary general, Colin Granderson; St Lucia's Prime Minister, Kenny Anthony, and Barbados' Prime Minister Owen Arthur.

Rebels' bid for power rejected; ordered to disband

US says Philippe should 'make himself scarce'

WASHINGTON: The US administration rejected yesterday bids for power in Haiti by rebels and insisted they lay down their arms and return to their homes. There is a political process under way to pick up after the departure of president Jean-Bertrand Aristide and "the rebels do not have a role in this process," State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said. "The rebels have to lay down their arms and go home," Boucher said in rejecting a declaration by rebel leader Guy Philippe that he had become the new chief of Haiti's military and other assertions of power by other rebels. Roger Noriega, the assistant secretary of state for the region, said of Philippe: "He is not in control of anything but a ragtag band of people."

The US administration, meanwhile, tried to set aside the controversy over Aristide's departure from Haiti, expressing little interest in his claims that he was forced to go into exile by the American military. "I think the story's been addressed," presidential press secretary Scott McClellan said, referring to emphatic administration denials. "The decision to leave was Mr Aristide's to make." Aristide's resignation letter said he was leaving "in order to avoid a bloodbath," according to a US translation from Creole. "I accept to leave, with the hope that there will be life and not death." A copy of the letter was provided by the Bush administration. But US Sen John Kerry, the front-runner for the Democratic nomination for president, said he thought there ought to be some investigation of the claim that Aristide was forced out and escorted by US troops. "I don't know the truth of it. I really don't," Kerry said the NBC television programme Today. "But I think it needs to be explored and we need to know the truth of what happened."

US accuses Aristide government of condoning corruption, drug trafficking

WASHINGTON: The White House yesterday launched a fresh attack on former Haitian leader Jean-Bertrand Aristide's leadership, accusing his government of condoning official corruption, including drug trafficking. "It was Aristide's failed government that empowered armed gangs to control the country," White House spokesman Scott McClellan said. "It was a failed government that condoned official corruption, including drug trafficking. "It was a failed government that engaged in acts of political violence against a peaceful democratic opposition." McClellan declined to say what evidence the administration has to support his claim that Aristide's government condoned drug trafficking.

The White House comment came after John Kerry, the front-runner for the Democratic nomination for president, said he thought there ought to be some investigation of the claim that Aristide was forced out and escorted by US troops. "I think it needs to be explored and we need to know the truth of what happened," Kerry said. The Bush administration yesterday again denied Aristide was forced into exile by the US military. "I think the story's been addressed," McClellan said, referring to previous emphatic administration denials. "The decision to leave was Mr Aristide's to make and it was a decision that was in the best interest of the Haitian people." Aristide's resignation letter said he was leaving "in order to avoid a bloodbath," according to a US translation from Creole. "I accept to leave, with the hope that there will be life and not death." A copy of the letter was provided by the Bush administration. President George W Bush called President Jacques Chirac of France and President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva of Brazil to review developments in Haiti.

McClellan said US officials were not trying to contact Aristide. Black lawmakers and others demanded an investigation into the way the administration treated Aristide in the hours before he left his country and turned up in the Central African Republic. They built their objections around repeated claims by Aristide that US officials forced him out. With Aristide gone, and rebels who brought him down inside Port-au-Prince, Haiti's capital, the first significant US military presence began arriving on Monday. The Pentagon said as many as 400 Marines would be there at the end of the day, with hundreds more to come. As many as 2,000 US troops could eventually go to Haiti to help curb the chaos, but Defense Secretary Donald H Rumsfeld said US troops would remain in Haiti only for a short time. An interim international force that could include up to 5,000 troops from France, Canada and elsewhere was expected to stay until replaced by a UN peacekeeping force. Aristide told The Associated Press that his resignation was coerced. He said US agents who came to his home "were telling me that if I don't leave they would start shooting and killing in a matter of time." It was unclear whether Aristide meant that the rebels or US agents would begin shooting.

Aristide's kidnap claims cause problems with his African host

BANGUI, Central African Republic: Claims by ousted Haitian leader Jean-Bertrand Aristide that US officials forced him from power have disturbed his hosts in the Central African Republic who intended to press him yesterday about his plans for the next stop in his exile. Aristide, who resigned Sunday and arrived in the Central African Republic on a flight arranged by the US government, said he was forced to leave by the American military — a claim dismissed by US Secretary of State Colin Powell and others in the Bush administration. His claims, made in an interview with The Associated Press and in phone calls to US Congressmen and activists, created diplomatic worries for his new host country, where he is staying in the official residence of President Francois Bozize. "The authorities have already called on Aristide to remain calm, to stop making accusations against America," Foreign Minister Charles Wenezoui told the AP.

"We fear that this kind of declaration compromises relations between the Central African Republic and the United States." Aristide and the president's ministers were expected to discuss plans for the ousted Haitian leader's final asylum plans in an as-yet-unknown third country later yesterday, Communications Minister Parfait Mbaye said. "Bozize will come and deal with this problem of settlement today and in the days to come," Mbaye said. South Africa has said in principle it's not opposed to taking in Aristide, but that it hasn't received a formal request. Like the Central African Republic, it was thought to be troubled by the political and diplomatic problems that could arise from offering asylum. "Diplomatic contacts are still going on to find Aristide another country of asylum," said Wenezoui, the foreign minister, without elaborating.

The government of the Central African Republic on Monday denied claims by Aristide, Haiti's first democratically elected president, that he was being held prisoner in the presidential palace. Central African Republic's Foreign Ministry said it would investigate Aristide's charges that he was "forced to leave" by US military forces. Bozize, who ousted an unpopular elected leader to take power in March 2002, has been courting international support and aid to stabilise his coup-prone country.