Aristide supporters plan Haiti backlash

"We are going to burn down the palace with the Americans inside," said Jean Enzo, a resident of the slums where Aristide built a power
base as a firebrand Roman Catholic priest two decades ago. "We have weapons and we are ready to fight."

The harsh words and a huge demonstration by Aristide supporters on Friday showed Haiti's poor masses were not ready to give up on
their elected president, who was pushed from office on Sunday by a bloody revolt and foreign pressure.

Aristide, from exile in the Central African Republic, has repeatedly said he was kidnapped. The death toll in the monthlong rebellion has
swelled to more than 200.

"If they don't bring the president back, there's going to be a lot of blood," said Jean Gustave, near the ruins of St. Jean Bosco, the church
where Aristide railed against Haiti's Duvalier family dictatorship in the mid-1980s.

Aristide supporters promised daily demonstrations to protest the ouster of Haiti's first freely elected president, who won a second term in
office in 2000 but was pushed out by armed rebels and political opponents who accused him of corruption and human rights violations.

The council of "wise men" chosen on Friday to help pick a new government includes only one member of Aristide's Lavalas family
movement, which had dominated the government. Four are from the political opposition and two are from churches.

The council appeared to have settled on top candidates to replace Prime Minister Yvon Neptune, an Aristide ally.

LEADING CANDIDATES

They included a former prime minister, Smarck Michel, who held the post during 1994 and 1995 after a U.S.-led intervention force of
20,000 troops restored Aristide to power following three years in exile.

Michel, a businessman, ultimately broke with Aristide over differences in economic policy. His businesses near the airport were looted this
week.

Also mentioned are former Haitian army General Herard Abraham, former foreign minister Gerard Latortue and Axan Abellard of the
Center for Free Enterprise and Democracy. The new prime minister could be named on Sunday or Monday, officials say.

As the political effort plodded ahead, U.S. special forces moved into territory held by the rebels, including Gonaives, where the rebellion
erupted on February 5, and Cap-Haitien, the second-largest city.

The U.N.-approved multinational force sent to restore order includes U.S., French, Chilean and Canadian troops, numbers about 2,000 and
was expected to grow to about 5,000.

The Pan American Health Organisation said Port-au-Prince's main hospital was holding nearly 200 bodies of victims of violence since the
revolt's outbreak, taking the death toll much higher than previous estimates of about 100 nationwide.

With U.S. and French troops and the National Police on patrol, the capital had calmed after the looting and shooting surrounding Aristide's
departure. But aid agencies struggled to move food amid reports that hundreds were turning up at health centres in search of supplies.

"A lot of people are suffering because of the security situation," said Alejandro Chicheri of the World Food Program. He said the WFP
hoped to send a convoy north next week but the roads were still too dangerous.

After five days of lying low amid reports of reprisal killings, a huge crowd of Aristide's rabid supporters burst out of the slums on Friday to
demand his return and hurl slurs at U.S. Marines and denounce President George W. Bush.

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