12648: This Week in Haiti 20:21 8/7/2002 (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

"This Week in Haiti" is the English section of HAITI PROGRES
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                           HAITI PROGRES
              "Le journal qui offre une alternative"

                      * THIS WEEK IN HAITI *

                         August 7 - 13, 2002
                          Vol. 20, No. 21


DOUBLE-CROSSED GONAÏVES LEADER CALLS FOR ARISTIDE'S OUSTER

Amiot "Cubain" Métayer was, until recently, one of President
Jean-Bertrand Aristide's staunchest allies. As the unelected
"president" of Raboteau, the most impoverished shanty town in
Haiti's most impoverished city, Gonaïves, Cubain marshaled huge
demonstrations in defense of Aristide. Now he is marshaling them
to call for the president's resignation.

Everything changed on July 2, when Métayer was summoned to meet
with Aristide. Instead of being driven to the National Palace, he
was bundled into a car where men placed guns to his head, he
says, and carted him off to jail.

"Aristide kidnaped me," Métayer later explained, "but the people
said Cubain did not fight all these years to wind up like that."

It was the beginning of a month of escalating protests, which
culminated on Aug. 2 with a crowd of his armed partisans knocking
down the Gonaïves prison's wall with a commandeered tractor and
freeing Métayer, along with 158 other prisoners, more than half
the prison. One escaping inmate was shot.

Frenzied crowds then set fire to the courthouse, city hall,
customs house, and a police pick-up in front of police
headquarters.

"We will have nothing to do with Aristide anymore," one
demonstrator told Haïti Progrès. "He betrayed us."

The roots of this "betrayal" stem from the endless concessions
Aristide and his Lavalas Family party (FL) have been making over
the past two years to Washington and the Republican-backed
Democratic Convergence (CD), an opposition front which has now
dwindled to 10 tiny parties. The CD has demanded the arrest and
prosecution of popular organization leaders, like Cubain, who
lead angry crowds in ransacking opposition figures' homes and
headquarters on Dec. 17, 2001, after a 30-man commando attempted
to assassinate Aristide and briefly captured the Palace.

"On Dec. 17, [Prime Minister] Yvon Neptune and [FL spokesperson]
Jonas Petit telephoned us in our headquarters to tell us to block
everything and to go to the Convergence houses with weapons and
ammunition which the government gave us to prevent a coup
d'état," Métayer's Revolutionary Forces of Raboteau (FRR),
previously fearsomely named "Cannibal Army," explained in a press
release. "Today, these same people want to arrest all the popular
organization leaders."

In recent months, the government has arrested other popular
organization leaders, including in March Ronald "Cadavre" Camille
of the capital's La Saline slum (see Haïti Progrès, Vol. 20, No.
2, 3/27/2002). Another leader in the capital, Ronald Bèbè, has
disappeared; his partisans believe that the government killed
him.

These shanty town-based popular organizations have been
Aristide's principal base of support over the past decade. Often
they have been called upon to demonstrate in support of the
Lavalas government, and even bodily defend it during coup
attempts. The military killed many popular organization militants
during the 1991-94 coup d'état. Now, to appease Washington,
Aristide has begun arresting popular organization leaders,
creating a huge backlash."Now we are removing the leash from our
neck to place ourselves in the people's camp," the FRR declared
in their note.

In a pathetic attempt to disguise its concessions to Washington,
the government did not arrest Métayer for the events of Dec. 17
but instead concocted an allegation that he directed the arson of
several homes in the Gonaïves neighborhood of Jubilé in May. The
charge was flimsy and even Jubilé residents denied his
involvement.

In the face of Gonaïves' upheaval, the government has gone into
disarray. The police, who made themselves remarkably scarce
during the assault on the prison (despite repeated ultimatums
from Cubain's supporters), favor a hard-line response. "This is a
case of extreme banditry which requires an extreme remedy,"
declared police spokesman Jean Dady Siméon. The police have
deployed the U.S.-trained heavily-armed Company for Intervention
and for the Maintenance of Order (CIMO) as well as the Coast
Guard off shore to catch sea-going fugitives. Métayer has charged
that the government has been dropping grenades on Raboteau from a
helicopter. On Aug. 6, police exchanged gun-fire with men
stationed at a burning-tire barricade in the Gonaïves
neighborhood of Bito. So far the Police have captured 10
escapees, five in Gonaïves, two in Cap Haïtien, and three outside
of Port-au-Prince.

Meanwhile, Aristide is trying to calm spirits and assuage Métayer
and the FRR, along with other Raboteau popular organizations. He
dispatched Palace representative Jose Ulysse to the city to
negotiate and defuse "the logic of confrontation"(Ulysse's
words), but so far the old magic isn't working. "We were very
happy to meet with Mr. Ulysse," said the FRR's Wenter Etienne,
"so that we could send President Aristide this message: it is
time for him to go, to leave power."

This sentiment was echoed by demonstrators who filled the streets
on Aug. 5 crying "Down with Aristide, Long Live Cubain."

"He just offers more lies, more bluffs, more dilatory tactics,
and more high cost of living," cried one demonstrator.

FL officials tried to blunt the uprising by making vague, hence
ineffectual,  insinuations. Communications Secretary Mario Dupuy
declared that there is "a hidden hand which doesn't want the
crisis to end." The Organization of American States (OAS)
Permanent Council was to deliberate on Aug. 2 to put the final
touches on an accord between the CD and FL and possibly recommend
releasing frozen aid disbursements to Haiti, but the body
postponed the meeting due to "the situation."

Prime Minister Yvon Neptune said that Raboteau had "cells of
delinquents" which were easily drawn into this uprising, which
was part of a "destabilization" campaign. Deputy Wilken Candy
charged that "a lot of money and a lot of arms were given out to
make those things happen in Gonaïves" and that "it is not
something innocent." Deputy Millien Romage also called it a
"destablilization movement" but asserted that "it is not a
national movement, and it cannot overturn President Aristide."

But the unrest has shown signs of spreading. This past week,
riots, in which four people were wounded, shook the northwestern
city of Port-de-Paix, and large demonstrations occurred in the
southern city of Petit Goâve. A large protest rally is planned
for Hinche, on the Central Plateau, at the end of August.

Not so ironically, Washington has thrown its support behind the
Haitian government. "The violent actions of 'popular
organizations' and street gangs are deplorable," said U.S. State
Department Deputy Spokesman Philip Reeker in an Aug. 5 press
statement. "We call upon the Government of Haiti to take all
necessary steps to restore order and the rule of law in the city
of Gonaives. In order to protect the people of Haiti and prevent
further lawlessness, Haitian authorities should pursue and
re-arrest all prison escapees, including 'Cubain' Metayer, who is
charged for perpetrating serious acts of violence in Gonaives."

OAS Secretary General  César Gaviria seconded this position. "It
is imperative that the authorities reestablish public order and
that all citizens recognize that the rule of law must prevail,"
he said.

In recent weeks, Washington and the OAS have warmed up to the
Haitian government as it has continued concessions, stepped up
repression, and rounded up popular organization leaders. For
example, nine unionists have been illegally jailed without
charges for over two months after a crackdown in Guacimal (see
Haïti Progrès, Vol. 20, No. 11 5/29/2002) and Aristide has signed
away about 10% of Haitian territory (1875 km2) along the border
for a giant free trade zone which will likely be patrolled by
Dominican and U.S. troops (see Haïti Progrès, Vol. 20, No. 17,
7/10/2002).

As a reward, Washington and the OAS snubbed a recent CD demand
for the posts of Prime Minister and chief of police and are
pressing the opposition front to settle their dispute with the
FL.

Right-wing neo-Duvalierist parties, like the ALAH of Reynold
Georges and the MDN of Hubert Deronceray, which have recently
split from the Convergence, welcome the Gonaïves uprising as a
step toward their long coveted "zero option," the overthrow of
Aristide. But the mostly social democratic parties which remain
in the CD front, like Gérard Pierre Charles' OPL, Serge Gilles'
PANPRA, and Victor Benoit's KONAKOM, long for a power-sharing
arrangement with the FL. They applauded Métayer's arrest and have
remained uncharacteristically mum about events in Gonaïves,
perhaps gauging Aristide's chances of survival.

Back in Gonaïves, the police are still unable to venture into
Raboteau, where a strange alliance of once-fervent Aristide
supporters and former Macoutes (Duvalierist thugs) has emerged.
Leading demonstrations with Cubain is Jean "Tatoun" Pierre, who
was recently sentenced to life hard labor for his role in the
April 1994 Raboteau massacre. "I am happy that Cubain freed me
from prison," Tatoun said. "We are going to work together to make
Aristide leave."

Métayer seems to agree. He is calling for Aristide to step down
and be replaced by the head of the Supreme Court. In an Aug. 3
interview with Radio Métropole, he called Aristide "ungrateful"
(which Aristide has often labeled his estranged allies). "Every
time we fight for a president, they always end up giving us
absolutely nothing," he said.

All articles copyrighted Haïti Progrès, Inc. REPRINTS ENCOURAGED.
Please credit Haïti Progrès.

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