14505: Pierre Jean: Re: 14480: (Chamberlain) Haitian authorities seek to arrest activist (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Pierre Jean <pierrejean01@yahoo.com>

Holy cow!

Himmler Rebu an ACTIVIST? I cannot believe what I am
reading. Clearly, Michael Deibert did not live in
Haiti when Rebu was the head of the "Corps des
Leopards" under Duvalier, one of the best trained and
most hated part of the Haitian army.

That Rebu would rise again, like a phoenix out of its
ashes (make that smelly ashes) is already incredible.
That he has managed to regain some form of credibility
to now be called an "activist" is beyond
comprehension.

Maybe Deibert could better balance his reporting by
interviewing victims of that "elite corps" during teh
Duvalier years. Then readers will get a better sense
of who Himmler Rebu really is.


--- Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu> wrote:
>
>
> From: Greg Chamberlain
> <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>
>
>      By Michael Deibert
>
>      PORT-AU-PRINCE, Jan 15 (Reuters) - Authorities
> issued an arrest
> warrant for a former Haitian army colonel who has
> helped lead a wave of
> anti-government protests, a judicial source said on
> Wednesday.
>      The warrant issued on Tuesday against Himmler
> Rebu, a former colonel
> in the Haitian army disbanded by President
> Jean-Bertrand Aristide in 1994,
> charges that Rebu injured government supporters
> during clashes between
> Aristide supporters and opponents on Friday, said
> the source, who spoke on
> condition of anonymity.
>      The violence in Port-au-Prince began when a
> group chanting
> pro-Aristide slogans began pelting an
> anti-government march Rebu was
> leading with rocks and bottles. It spiraled into a
> chaotic afternoon that
> saw Haitian police firing automatic weapons into the
> air and along the
> ground.
>      More than a dozen bleeding and battered
> demonstrators and
> counter-demonstrators staggered into a hospital.
>      Rebu has denied the charges.
>      "I was always with the police during this
> demonstration," he said on
> Wednesday. "The government is trying to neutralize
> me. I call on the
> opposition to react strongly against these
> maneuvers."
>      Haiti has been rocked by increasingly violent
> demonstrations over the
> last two months as opposition parties, students and
> other groups have
> called on Aristide to resign.
>      Aristide, a former Roman Catholic priest
> serving his second term as
> president of the poor Caribbean country, has been
> locked in a political
> dispute over the results of May 2000 parliamentary
> elections, which
> opposition parties allege were calculated to favor
> Aristide's Lavalas
> Family party.
>     Also on Wednesday, men who said they represented
> groups of demobilized
> soldiers visited radio stations around the capital
> to read a statement in
> support of Rebu.
>      "We warn the Aristide government not to arrest
> Himmler Rebu because he
> is a citizen and has the right to participate in the
> political process,"
> one said.
>      The men declined to give their names, citing
> security concerns.
>      Several high-profile arrest warrants against
> Aristide supporters,
> including one against Rene Civil, a leader of
> Friday's pro-Aristide
> faction, have yet to be executed though the subjects
> operate with relative
> ease and in public view in the capital.
>      Rebu has been one of the driving forces in the
> latest round of
> anti-government protests, which began with a march
> in the northern city of
> Cap Haitien on Nov. 17 that drew 10,000 people.
>


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