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PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti - Haiti's key rebel leader promised Wednesday his forces would lay down their arms after 1,000 U.S. Marines began patrolling the impoverished capital to restore order and prepare for the arrival of international peacekeepers.
If Guy Philippe (gee fee-LEEP), a rebel boss and former police chief, can make good on his vow, it would mark the end of the rebellion that broke out Feb. 5, drove President Jean-Bertrand Aristide into African exile Sunday and left at least 130 Haitians dead.
The 15-nation Caribbean Community, meanwhile, refused to join an international peacekeeping force in Haiti and called for an independent international inquiry into Aristide's allegations that he was forced out office by the United States.
Jamaican Prime Minister P.J. Patterson said CARICOM was "extremely disappointed" at the involvement of "Western partners" in the departure of Aristide. He charged that the U.N. Security Council had ignored an urgent Caribbean appeal to it on Thursday to send peacekeepers to Haiti before Aristide was forced out.
Aristide remained in the Central African Republic, where he had been flown to exile in a U.S.-government-chartered jet, unable to find a country that will grant him permanent residence.
The Marines moved out of their bivouac at the presidential palace Wednesday in a first reconnaissance mission since they began arriving on Sunday. They walked and drove machine-gun mounted Humvees 30 blocks over trash-strewn streets.
The troops used their vehicles and their hands to push burned cars from roadways and riflemen watched the streets for resistance. Encountering none, the Marines returned to the palace that had been the seat of Aristide's power before his departure Sunday.
The death toll in the rebellion has continued to rise, reaching at least 130 Wednesday as workers at the Port-au-Prince hospital said 30 more bodies had been brought to the morgue since Sunday.
Col. Mark Gurganis, 49, commander of the U.S. troops in Haiti, said he and other U.S. officials asked Philippe during a meeting Wednesday "to honor what he said he was going to do and lay down his arms."
Holding out the hope that the spasms of violence would end, Philippe said rebels wanted peace.
"Now that there are foreign troops promising to protect the Haitian people ... and they have given the guarantee to protect the Haitian people ... we will lay down our arms," Philippe said.
The rebels then abandoned the former army headquarters, which they moved into upon arriving in the capital on Monday.
Also Wednesday, Haiti's political opposition met with interim President Boniface Alexandre, demanding he dismiss and perhaps arrest Prime Minister Yvon Neptune - a top member of Aristide's Lavalas party.
Alexandre, making his first address to the nation since the former Supreme Court chief justice was sworn in on Sunday, said, "I did not ask for this position but I gladly accept it because ... it is every Haitian's responsibility to search for solutions to the current crisis."