PHILLIPE. may run for president

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) - A leader in the revolt that ousted former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide has transformed his rebel army into a political party that plans to campaign in next year's general elections, officials said yesterday.

Guy Philippe's new party is called the Front for National Reconstruction and it aims to improve education and health care, spokesman Decoste Jeudy said.

Philippe, a former police chief in northern Haiti, helped launch the three-week rebellion that forced Aristide to flee the country on February 29. He has hinted that he may run for president in elections that interim Prime Minister Gerard Latortue has promised by 2005.

Philippe announced the formation of the new party on Tuesday in Gonaives, about 100 kilometres (60 miles) north of Port-a-Prince, where rebels launched the revolt.

More than 5,000 people - rebels, rebel supporters and former members of the army that Aristide disbanded after he was first ousted in a 1991 coup - have joined the party, said Jeudy, who was vague on how the party planned to transform the country.

"(We want) to get the great minds that are living outside the country to come back and give back to the Haitian youth in terms of building new schools and better schools," Jeudy said.

The new political party was announced as Haiti celebrated Flag Day, festivities that were marred by violence in Port-au-Prince when riot police fired tear gas and warning shots to disperse demonstrators calling for Aristide's return. At least one man was killed.

Aristide claims he was forced to leave his homeland by the United States, a claim that US officials deny. When Aristide fled Haiti, he flew to the Central African Republic but left two weeks later to spend time with his wife and two daughters in Jamaica.

He is expected to arrive this week in South Africa, which has offered temporary asylum.

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