Feb 29, 2004
By Jim Loney and Alistair Scrutton

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (Reuters) - Faced with an armed rebellion and intense pressure from the United States and France, Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide on Sunday left his troubled Caribbean country, its future uncertain as armed gangs vie for power on the streets.

"Aristide has left," a senior Haitian security official said. "The administration believes Aristide made the right decision for the Haitian people by resigning," a senior U.S. official said in Washington.

Aristide, whose role in a popular uprising that ended decades of dictatorship in the 1980s once made him a hero of Haitian democracy, left the impoverished nation 24 days after the start of a bloody uprising by armed rebels.

The Haitian consul in neighboring Dominican Republic said Aristide was probably traveling to Morocco on Sunday, but it was not clear whether he was making a stop somewhere on the way.

Haitian Chief Justice Boniface Alexandre will be sworn in as president on Sunday to replace Aristide, Prime Minister Yvon Neptune said. Neptune also read a statement by Aristide in which he said he stood down to avoid bloodshed.

Alexandre, an Aristide appointee, is president of Haiti's Supreme Court and is designated by Haiti's constitution to temporarily assume the presidency if the office is vacant. Prime Minister said Alexandre would be sworn in shortly.

As news of Aristide's departure spread, reaction in the streets of the capital, Port-au-Prince, was swift and angry.

Armed bands of "chimeres," the most militant and ruthless of Aristide's supporters from the slums roamed the city in pickup trucks, armed with shotguns and other weapons.

The Aristide militants had been set to give the rebels a tough fight if they did move in on the sprawling city, prompting worries the city could be plunged into a bloodbath.


LOOTERS RUN AMOK

Looters hit a police station in Petionville, an upscale suburb in the hills above the capital, carting away police hats, t-shirts, helmets and other parts of police uniforms.

Two men carried away a new refrigerator, still wrapped in plastic. One balanced a cooler on his head. Others took televisions, VCRs, filing cabinets, even the doors from the police station.

On a major thoroughfare, a barricade constructed of burning tires sent a wall of thick, black smoke along the street. Aristide supporters drove up and added tires to fuel the fire. Others gathered on street corners, puzzled by the events.

A U.S. official in Washington said Aristide's departure had averted a bloodbath.

"We managed to stave that off. But we are heading into another dangerous period because any vacuum in Haiti could also be dangerous," he said.

Aristide's departure came under pressure from the United States, France and other nations for him to resign and end the revolt, which has killed nearly 70 people.

The United States, which invaded the country in 1994 to restore Aristide to power, has been criticized for acting too slowly in the current crisis. It failed last week to negotiate a compromise between the politicians in Port-au-Prince meant to avert a collapse of the government.

But by the end of the week Washington had made clear it had lost faith in Aristide and his departure was a matter of time. The Pentagon warned that 2,000 Marines were on alert and could be in Haiti in two days.

Rumors of Aristide's departure had spread through the Haitian capital on Saturday, sparked by reports of a late-night meeting at the National Palace involving Aristide, U.S. ambassador James Foley and other officials.


REBELS CELEBRATE

Rebel soldiers in Cap Haitien, the rebel stronghold in the north overrun last weekend, began celebrating in the streets even before Aristide's departure was confirmed. The armed rebels, led by a former police chief and a former death squad leader, had said they were advancing on the capital.

Aristide's departure was welcomed by his political foes, who accused him of human rights violations and corruption and turned down a U.S.-led international peace proposal last week that would have left Aristide in office but given them a role in a power-sharing arrangement. That refusal piled the pressure on the president.

"It's great for the country. That's what we've been waiting for," said Charles Baker, a leader of a coalition of opposition civic and political groups. "Now we're partying. Then we'll get back to work."

Aristide, a former parish priest, first took office in 1991 but was ousted in a coup months later. He was restored to power by the U.S. invasion in 1994, and then re-elected in 2000 for a second term.

As late as Thursday, he declared he would not be forced from office, insisting that would even further undermine the country's flimsy democracy. "We had 32 coup d'etats. It's enough," he told CNN.

Aristide, a slight and studious-looking 50-year-old, was a hero of Haiti's legions of poor when he emerged from delivering sermons denouncing oppression to become the country's first democratically elected president after years of brutal dictatorships.

Haiti, which gained independent from France in 1804, shares the island of Hispaniola with the Dominican Republic. It is the poorest country in the Americas and most of its people live on less than a dollar a day.

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