Haiti Military Vows to Stay Out of Politics : Caribbean: A new, interim president is installed. Scattered violence persists.

Scattered acts of violence kept Haiti on edge Tuesday as an apparently chastened army high command handed over the country’s presidency to a justice of the Supreme Court.

Ertha Pascal Trouillot, a 42-year-old widow who has described herself as a nonpartisan democrat, was installed as provisional president of Haiti in a brief ceremony at the capital’s Presidential Palace.

Investing her with presidential powers that were entrusted to him when military ruler Lt. Gen. Prosper Avril was ousted Saturday, Maj. Gen. Herard Abraham pledged that the armed forces--long a tool of oppression in Haiti--will henceforth stick to military affairs and “guarantee the security of lives and property of all.”

“This mission entrusted to the armed forces of Haiti comes to its end. Yours begins, Madame President,” Abraham said, standing stiffly at attention and saluting Trouillot. “Madame President, the Haitian armed forces are at your command.”

Trouillot responded in a brief, graceful acceptance speech, expressing her belief that the military is “conscious that its task is to guarantee public peace within the precise limits of the constitution and of the laws of the republic.”

If Trouillot’s faith and Abraham’s pledges hold fast, it will be the first time since the collapse of the Duvalier dynasty in February, 1986, that pro-democracy civilians and the corruption-tainted military have worked together toward a goal of free and fair elections. Much of the violence that derailed a previous attempt at democratic elections in 1987 was blamed on the army, which had controlled all four of the governments that succeeded the Duvaliers.

Although the violence that has kept the country tense for the past week abated somewhat Tuesday, members of the crowd of 10,000 in front of the palace during Trouillot’s installation remained edgy. A scattering of gunshots and what sounded like grenade explosions were heard from a nearby neighborhood not long after the rites.

In Deluge, about 60 miles north of the capital, six people died and more than 2,000 were left homeless after hundreds of farmhouses were burned in a land dispute that flared during the power vacuum that existed between Saturday and Tuesday.

Trouillot, the youngest member of the Supreme Court and its only woman, was heavily applauded when she said, “I have accepted this heavy task in the name of the Haitian woman.”

She defined her temporary role narrowly, promising to take no “profound initiatives” and focusing on leading the country “in the least possible time toward an elected government.”

Trouillot smiled and winked at her 15-year-old daughter, Yantha, who sat, beaming proudly, in the audience of justices, diplomats and pro-democratic political figures who forced Avril into exile.

U.S. Ambassador Alvin P. Adams Jr., who played a significant role in Avril’s ouster and his decision to go into exile, said: “It’s a great day for this country and a great day for democracy in this hemisphere.

“This government is, we believe, truly dedicated to the conduct of elections as soon as possible,” Adams said. “When these elections are completed, there will be but one country left in the hemisphere which does not have a government elected by the people, and we all know what government that is.”

Adams’ obvious reference to Cuba echoed a similar remark by President Bush that was circulated here last week.

Most of the pro-democracy political figures who had opposed Avril appeared optimistic that Trouillot and a still-incomplete 19-member Council of State will have the army’s support as they lead the country to elections within three to six months.