Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, December 16, 1993 TAG: 9312160045
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A14 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: PORT-AU-PRINCE, HAITI LENGTH: Medium
In Washington, an aide to exiled President Jean-Bertrand Aristide said Malval, in his last political act as premier, was carrying a letter from Aristide firing army chief Lt. Gen. Raoul Cedras. The aide spoke on condition of anonymity.
Cedras, a leader in the 1991 coup that ousted Aristide, foiled a U.N. plan that would have reinstated the popular president Oct. 30.
Malval wept as he was hustled into a car by aides at the airport minutes after returning from talks at the United Nations, in Paris and in Washington.
He had been trying to drum up support for a national conference seeking to restore constitutional government in Haiti.
Malval, whose Aristide-backed transition government took office Sept. 2, didn't speak of the letter to reporters.
Malval had said Thursday would be his final day as premier, but that he would remain on as a caretaker until a new leader was designated.
He told reporters at the airport that he was calling off his consensus initiative because few Haitian political leaders had committed to attend his planned conference and security of participants couldn't be guaranteed.
Malval, a moderate businessman, said he had failed in his goal to lead Haiti back to democracy. He then began sobbing.
Malval's transition government was internationally recognized but powerless before the military, the real power in Haiti.
The army has done nothing to prevent violence by rightist police-linked gunmen, who have terrorized the population and are blamed for the murders of Malval's justice minister and a top Aristide financial supporter.
Haiti is reeling under a U.N.-imposed oil embargo aimed at punishing the army for reneging on the peace accord, signed by Cedras and Aristide in July.
Aristide, a leftist who won Haiti's first free elections in December 1990, is despised by many soldiers, who have threatened to kill him if he returns.
by CNB