Aristide devotees criticise takeover

SUPPORTERS of exiled President Jean-Bertrand Aristide criticised the foreign occupation of their country yesterday as Haitian officials began to patch together a new government.

“I don’t like to see the Americans in our palace. We are under occupation,” said Omicar Olamy, who was among about 300 people at the iron fence surrounding the national palace as Haiti’s flag was raised and its national anthem played under the watchful eyes of heavily-armed US marines.

US military vehicles mounted with machine guns and missile launchers rumbled through the teeming streets of the capital, sending a strong message to rebels and armed pro-Aristide militants it was time to lay down their arms.

Five days after Mr Aristide was ousted by a bloody rebellion, a new tri-partite council made up of people chosen by the government, Mr Aristide’s political foes and foreign nations went to work.

Mr Aristide’s minister of Haitians living abroad, Leslie Voltaire was named by the government. Political opposition, Democratic Platform, chose Paul Denis, a former senator, and the international community picked Adama Guindo, the UN resident co-ordinator.