Haiti Tries To Pick Up The Pieces

Haiti began trying to rebuild its shattered government, with a seven-member council interviewing candidates for prime minister and the interim president appealing for an end to recent violence.

Members of the recently appointed "Council of Sages" said they would pick the new prime minister on Tuesday.

The actions came as ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, speaking from his exile in Africa, claimed he was still the Caribbean nation's true president and called on his followers to offer a "peaceful resistance."

In Haiti, Aristide supporters answered him by gathering outside the National Palace's gates during Monday's ceremony to install an interim president, shouting "Aristide or death!"

Military helicopters circled overhead and U.S. Marines in armored cars patrolled the streets outside the palace where Aristide's followers declared: "Like it or not, Aristide must come back!"

Aristide repeated his assertion that he had been kidnapped by the U.S. government — a charge American officials deny.

Boniface Alexandre was officially installed as interim president on Monday, although he had been serving in that post since shortly after Aristide fled Feb. 29, amid international pressure and a bloody rebellion.

Alexandre appealed for calm.

"We are all brothers and sisters," he said. "We are all in the same boat, and if it sinks, it sinks with all of us."

In Washington, State Department spokesman Richard Boucher insisted that Aristide had voluntarily resigned.

"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," Boucher said.

Ignoring Aristide's claims to Haiti's leadership, the "Council of Sages" was interviewing three top candidates for prime minister, to replace Aristide appointee Yvon Neptune.

The new premier would form a transitional government from Aristide's Lavalas party and a disparate opposition coalition. Under a U.S.-backed plan, that government would call new elections.

The candidates were:

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. That same army 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.

This time, U.S. Marines and French Legionnaires began arriving the same day Aristide left, forming the vanguard of a U.N. force to restore peace in Haiti, where a monthlong rebellion left more than 130 dead. On Monday, there were 1,600 Marines, 800 French soldiers and police and 130 Chilean troops in Haiti.

A frenzy of looting that erupted the day before Aristide's flight and waned with the arrival of peacekeepers resurged 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 a half a mile from the international airport where U.S. Marines have set up base.

Associated Press Television News footage showed security guards shooting to scare off the looters, then calling in the Marines for help. Some peacekeepers helped bandage a woman's foot after she was shot.

Monday's pro-Aristide demonstration was mostly peaceful, a sharp contrast to the massive anti-Aristide protest a day before in which gunmen opened fire. Five people died Sunday, including a foreign journalist. A sixth victim died of wounds overnight, doctors at Canape Vert Hospital said.

U.S. Marines said they shot one gunman at Sunday's demonstration, raising the toll to seven. "He had a gun and he was shooting at Marines," Col. Charles Gurganus said Monday.

Gurganus said they did not know who the man was or the location of his body. They also didn't have his alleged weapon, he said, because someone at the scene snatched it.

The violence was the worst bloodshed since Aristide fled. It prompted the first armed action by the Marines and led both opponents and supporters of Aristide to threaten their own 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 do not disarm militant Aristide loyalists.

Later, Philippe met with opposition leader Evans Paul. The two had been slated to discuss reconstituting Haiti's disgraced army. However, there were no details on what they talked about.

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.