12696: Amid Unrest, Government Partisans Rally in Haiti (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

FROM: Kevin Pina   <kpinbox@hotmail.com>

World - Reuters

Amid Unrest, Government Partisans Rally in Haiti
Thu Aug 8, 8:09 PM ET
By Michael Deibert

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (Reuters) - Chanting "We will never surrender!" around
200 partisans loyal to embattled Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide
rallied in downtown Port-au-Prince on Thursday following a week that saw
large, violent demonstrations against his rule.



"The enemies of Haiti are trying to destabilize the country," said Paul
Raymond of the Ti Legliz or "Little Church" movement as he stood in the
ruins of the Church of St. Jean Bosco, where Aristide, then a parish priest,
said Mass until it was burned and twelve parishioners were massacred by
elements loyal to Haitian dictator Henri Namphy in 1988. "They are trying to
snatch the power of the people away."

"Today we are fighting to defend our independence," he said. "Haiti is sick,
this is true, but we have many doctors to save her."

The Caribbean nation of 8 million has been tense since Amiot Metayer, a gang
leader and self-styled former militant for Aristide, escaped from prison in
the coastal city of Gonaives along with more than 150 other inmates last
week when dozens of machine gun-wielding gang members attacked the jail with
a bulldozer.

Police fired tear gas and live ammunition at hundreds of protesters to break
up anti-government demonstrations in Gonaives on Monday as Metayer himself
continued calls for the government's ouster.

The jailbreak also freed several former military and paramilitary officials
convicted for their roles in a 1994 massacre in the same slum. Jean Tatoune,
serving a life sentence for the 1994 attack, was seen parading with and
embracing Metayer after the jailbreak and, according to witnesses in
Gonaives, has become the driving force behind the disturbances.

On Thursday, hundreds of anonymous leaflets blanketed the city calling for
the deaths of Senators Dany Toussaint and Joseph Medard, witnesses reported.
Both men are members of Aristide's Lavalas party.

Aristide has been locked in a two-year dispute with the Democratic
Convergence coalition over May 2000 legislative elections that Aristide's
opponents contend were biased to favor his Lavalas Family party.

Armed commandos attacked the National Palace last Dec. 17, and at least 10
people died in the assault and its aftermath in which half a dozen
opposition party homes and offices were torched in street violence blamed on
Aristide's partisans.

"We call for a general mobilization of the population to bring about the
departure of the Lavalas regime," said Convergence member and former
Port-au-Prince mayor Evans Paul in an interview on Wednesday with private
Radio Metropole. "Simply, Aristide must resign."

"When the opposition talks about mobilizing to force the removal of the
government, they are speaking in the language of the coup d'etat, and
someone better tell him that we won't sit back and let a coup d'etat pass,"
said Rene Civil, spokesman of the Popular Youth Power party, speaking after
Raymond to the wild shouts of those assembled.





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