15482: (Chamberlain) Alleged Haiti plotters held in Dominican Republic (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

     SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic, May 7 (Reuters) - Five Haitians
alleged to have been planning a coup against President Jean-Bertrand
Aristide have been arrested in neighboring Dominican Republic, authorities
said on Wednesday.
     Officials in the Dominican Republic, which shares the Caribbean island
of Hispaniola with Haiti, said the five included a former Haitian police
chief, Guy Philippe, and a former ambassador to the Dominican Republic,
Paul Arcelin.
     They were detained in the northern border town of Dajabon and were
being held in a Dominican military jail, an army spokesman said.
     The Haitian consul in Dajabon, Jean Batiste Bien-Aime, said the
arrests had thwarted a plot to start a rebellion against Aristide's
government with attacks on police stations.
     Arcelin, interviewed by local media in the Dajabon jail, denied he
traveled to the city as part of a plot to overthrow Aristide, but was
fiercely critical of the government.
     It's "not us who are going to take them out of power but the people,
who can't stand the social and economic situation, and the neglect
anymore," he said.
     Haiti, with a population of about 8 million, is the poorest country in
the Americas. Aristide, who was the country's first freely elected
president, is serving a second term that has been marked by periodic waves
of anti-government protests.