a281: Haiti Coup Attempt Leader Said Taken (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: radtimes <resist@best.com>

Haiti Coup Attempt Leader Said Taken

http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-dominican-haiti-coup0108jan07.story?coll=sns%2Dap%2Dnationworld%2Dheadlines


By ANDRES CALA
Associated Press Writer
January 7, 2002

SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic -- A suspected leader of a reported coup
attempt in Haiti has been taken into custody by the military in the
neighboring Dominican Republic, officials said Monday.

Guy Philippe, former police chief of northern Cap-Haitien, had been under
house arrest. Haiti said he organized the Dec. 17 attack on the National
Palace in which about two dozen armed men stormed the building.

One attacker, captured when police retook the building, told authorities
Philippe attended a meeting in the Dominican Republic at which the group
planned the assault.

Philippe has denied involvement and has not yet been charged. Haiti's
government described the attack as a coup attempt.

However, opposition politicians accused the government of staging a coup as
an excuse to crack down on dissent. That charge has been denied by Haiti's
government.

At least 10 people were killed in the palace attack and violence that
followed. Haitian authorities have arrested four men accused of involvement.

Dominican government spokesman Luis Gonzalez Fabra said Philippe was being
held by the armed forces.

The countries have no extradition treaty. Dominican Foreign Minister Hugo
Tolentino Dipp said officials were looking for a country that would grant
Philippe political asylum.