Lt. Gen. Raoul Cedras will step down Monday as Haiti's military leader, transferring power to the army's No. 2 commander, the Haitian army said Sunday.
Maj. Gen. Jean-Claude Duperval replaces Cedras under a plan approved Saturday in Washington by Haitian officers and representatives of exiled President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, said Col. Jean-Robert Gabriel, a spokesman for the Haitian high command.Also set to leave is Brig. Gen. Philippe Biamby, the army chief of staff and a leader of the September 1991 coup that ousted Aristide. The resignations would pave the way for Aristide's expected homecoming on Saturday.
Cedras met Sunday with provisional President Emile Jonaissant, but details of their discussions were not disclosed.
Defense Secretary William Perry and Gen. John Shalikashvili, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, met with Cedras on Saturday in Port-au-Prince, but U.S. officials had no immediate comment on the resignation date.
A Clinton administration official said Cedras indicated he was going to resign in the next few days. The official, speaking Sunday on condition of anonymity, didn't deny reports that Cedras will resign Monday, but said, "Nothing is clear until he does it."
Perry and Shalikashvili did not discuss whether Cedras would leave the country, although U.S. officials have said they expect he eventually will do so. Cedras has vowed to remain in Haiti.
Parishioners at St. Gerard Roman Catholic church cheered when the Rev. Gerard Jean-Juste, an official in the Aristide government that was toppled three years ago, announced Cedras' imminent departure.