Haiti rebels met with adulation

By Stephen Gibbs
BBC correspondent in Port-au-Prince

Haiti's rebel leader Guy Philippe arrived in Port-au-Prince in a convoy of jeeps and with absolutely no resistance at all.

Philippe (centre) was received with adulation in Port-au-Prince

In fact he was met with quite a lot of adulation from the Haitian people, some of whom had been hiding in their houses for some time.

They took the opportunity to come out and followed him in a sort of victory parade through the capital to the presidential palace where, by then, there were a few thousand people.

They were very much looking forward to a new future, shouting things like "Liberty!" and certainly believing that Mr Philippe - it seemed - was their new leader.

There are not very many safe places in this city at the moment, and one of the main objectives for the international force here has been to make sure that the airport is safe.

We did see about 10 US Marines outside the presidential palace. But apart from that, they certainly have not been seen on the streets.

Rebels in control

There does seem to have been a pretty major transfer of power away from the pro-Aristide gangs that were roaming the streets only 24 hours ago.

MULTINATIONAL FORCE US marines Canadian special forces French troops French police More countries expected to join later

Now it seems that the rebels are very much in control. And also we have been seeing the police come back.

They have been pretty quiet until very recently. When the rebels came in so did the police, and there was some back-slapping between the police and the rebels.

One has to bear in mind that Mr Philippe used to be one of Mr Aristide's police chiefs before he had a change of heart and led this rebellion against the president.

Aristide 'kidnapped'

In the meantime, President Aristide has been making his accusations against the Americans, saying they kicked him out.

Aristide says he was forced to sign his resignation

Mr Aristide is in the Central African Republic, where he is claiming that he was virtually kidnapped and forced out by the Americans.

There were rumours along those lines very shortly after he left; that he was forced to sign a document of resignation, bundled up the steps of an aircraft by US marines and the airplane door was shut behind him, and that was it.

The fear here is that this will raise the hackles of the pro-Aristide gangs. We are not seeing them on the streets but they cannot have disappeared completely.

The feeling here is that the longer the international troops do not show any sign of being here, the more chance that the rebels will have to impose their order on this city and the less chance that they will want to give up that power.