Haiti’s Puppet Government Vows to Keep Power : Latin America: An OAS accord to resolve the nation’s political and economic crisis appears to be doomed.

In an act full of unintended irony and defiance, the puppet civilian government here said Monday that it would not go gently from office and called for the defeat of a compromise solution to the Haitian political and economic crisis.

Speaking to the opening session of Haiti’s National Assembly, Joseph Nerette, the provisional president imposed by the army after the Sept. 30 overthrow of elected President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, asserted: “I am chief of the state, the free, sovereign and independent state of Haiti. My mission is to follow the constitution and (exercise) the public powers of the presidency until an election of a new president.”

This was in direct defiance of an accord reached by Aristide and National Assembly leaders at a meeting last week in Caracas, Venezuela, where the ousted president is living in exile.

Under that agreement, Aristide would accept as prime minister Rene Theodore, a conservative Communist Party leader who opposed the president during his eight months in office and who has the backing of the United States, the Organization of American States and some influential business leaders here. Even the army high command reportedly has accepted the formula.

In turn, Aristide, a radical Roman Catholic priest, would return to office, albeit with diminished powers. And a severe economic embargo imposed by the OAS and the United States would be lifted.

But that accord already was in trouble with diplomats and other backers who are increasingly pessimistic about its chances for approval when the two-house Assembly votes later this week. The Nerette challenge, which is supported by provisional Prime Minister Jean-Jacques Honorat and Senate Speaker Jean Belizaire, made the endangered accord even more imperiled.

Ironically, Belizaire had negotiated and signed the OAS-sponsored Caracas agreement.

But in his opening message, he denied that any “serious document has been signed in Caracas” and accused the OAS of using “the deadly weapon” of the embargo in an act “of genocide.” He too pledged not to give up his office. “Like a ship’s captain, I have no right to abandon my ship in a storm.”

The opening ceremony began on a surrealistic note when Belizaire, wearing a black felt plantation hat as his badge of office, called for a moment of silence for a missing pro-Aristide deputy, shot and killed by government agents in a still unexplained event.

Adding to the bizarre nature of a public spectacle--where de facto government officials imposed by the military said they had a constitutional right to office--was the carnival atmosphere outside the assembly.

Musical groups called Ra Ra bands played loudly, their songs of encouragement to Nerette framed by cow bells, clanging rum bottle drums, whistles, conga drums and trumpets. Their din often overwhelmed the voice of the tiny, frail president.

A crowd of about 300 people, far smaller than what the anti-Aristide organizers had paid for, waved prepared signs demanding respect for the constitution but condemning the return of Aristide. Few in the crowd could even read the Creole words on their signs let alone the legalistic French phrasing of the constitution.

In a nearby park, the curious stood around two bodies left by police shooters from night encounters. At least three other people died during a Sunday night filled with gunfire.

When his time came to speak, Honorat, once an internationally respected human rights advocate and opponent of the country’s almost constant stream of military regimes, said that his government “never persecuted anyone for political beliefs . . . promoted human rights . . . and had done more for the country in three months” than Aristide had in his eight months in office.

But his speech came at a time when no independent radio station has broadcast news in more than a month, one prominent journalist has not been heard from since his arrest several weeks ago and another was forced to flee the country.

All three speakers Monday suggested that the supporters of the Caracas accord, presumably including Brig Gen. Raoul Cedras, the army chief of staff and the country’s real leader for the time being, had surrendered Haitian sovereignty to foreign influence.

Cedras, who had survived rumors of a weekend coup so believable that U.S. Embassy officials were prohibited from leaving town, sat impassively throughout the 2 1/2 hours of bombast.

Meantime, Nerette observed: “Any solution (to the present crisis) has to be a Haitian solution, negotiated by Haitians. It is time to take our own destiny into our own hands. We will never surrender. The solution is in our own hands and no negotiated settlement will be forced on Haiti.”

These were strong words from a man who was described two days earlier by a diplomat lobbying for the Caracas agreement as “someone who will do what he is told.”

In the words of a longtime expert on Haiti, “by any rational analysis” the Caracas agreement should be ratified. “But if it is, it will be the first rational political choice in Haitian history.”