15573: Arthur: some background on Guy Philippe (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Tttnhm@aol.com

In the context of last week's arrest of Guy Philippe and four others in
Dajabon by the Dominican authorities, I am sending this background
information about Philippe.



Former police chiefs implicated in National Palace attack

Captured former soldier reveals names of alleged coup plotters.
by Charles Arthur for the Haiti Support Group (sources: Reuters, AP, Haiti
Press Network, Haiti Progres)

An ex-soldier admitted on Thursday that he took part in the attack on the
National Palace in a coup attempt, saying fellow conspirators included a
former army colonel, and two former police chiefs who fled the country after
a previous alleged coup plot in October 2000.

Former FAD'H sergeant, Pierre Richardson, said he attended meetings in the
Dominican capital of Santo Domingo to plan the attack along with Guy
Philippe, former police chief of the northern city of Cap-Haitien, and
Jean-Jacques Nau, former police chief of the Delmas suburb of Port-au-Prince.

According to the police, Richardson, who has a bullet wound in his leg after
Monday's assault on the presidential palace, had been stopped on a road near
the border with the neighbouring Dominican Republic. When apprehended by
police, he was said to have been carrying a wad of cash and an M16 rifle. The
police say that Richardson had been involved in the July 28 attacks on the
national Police Academy and three police stations, which left five dead and
14 wounded. Apparently, he later fled to Dominican Republic where he was
granted temporary residence this month.

At a press conference at the main Port-au-Prince police station, Richardson
said 23 or 24 attackers stormed the palace in an attempt to oust President
Jean-Bertrand Aristide. "It was a coup d'etat," Richardson said. "The plan
was to enter the National Palace."


Guy François
Richardson, the only palace attacker caught alive so far, spoke to reporters
a day after one of those he implicated, former FAD'H colonel, Guy François,
was arrested for helping to plan the failed coup. In 1989, when François was
commander of the Dessalines barracks in central Port-au-Prince, he had
conspired with other officers in an attempt to overthrow the then dictator
Lt. Gen. Prosper Avril. When the plan was foiled, François fled to Venezuela.
It is unclear when he returned to Haiti.

Reuters reports police chief Dady Simeon saying that François was arrested at
Port-au-Prince International Airport late on Wednesday as he attempted to
board a flight bound for Venezuela. Other news agencies report that François
was arrested in Port-au-Prince while driving a car with Dominican license
plates. The police have not said what charges he faces. François' daughter,
speaking to reporters, denied that François had any involvement in the
attacks, and said he was at home on Sunday night.


Guy Philippe
Richardson revealed that at the meeting in Santo Domingo, former Cap-Haitien
police chief, Guy Philippe, "told us that former Colonel Guy François would
organise a backup for us in Haiti." But when the group began the attack, no
backup force materialised, he said. His account appears to confirm Haitian
police officials' claim to have intercepted radio transmissions in which the
attackers identified their leader as Philippe.

Philippe, who is also an ex-soldier who had been assigned to the police force
that replaced the army, sought refuge in Dominican Republic in October 2000
along with seven others accused of plotting a coup. (Details of the October
2000 plot appeared in the weekly newspaper, Haiti Progres, at that time.
Apparently, Philippe, Nau, and other former police chiefs who had been fired
from the force, together with former soldiers and civilians, had two meetings
at the private residence of a US military attaché in Haiti, a certain Major
Douyon, on October 8 and October 11 2000. Also present or at least expected,
according to an unconfirmed report by Radio Kiskeya on October 24 2000, was
the US chargé d'affaires, Leslie Alexander. When the Haitian government found
out about the meetings, Philippe, Nau and six other police chiefs fled to the
Dominican Republic, where they applied for political asylum.)

Philippe later moved to Ecuador, but he flew back to Dominican Republic two
weeks before last Monday's assault, Dominican officials said. After the
attack, he returned to Ecuador, where on Thursday he was being held by
immigration police in Quito while he appealed a government decision to deport
him to Panama, the country from which his flight had arrived. Haitian
government officials have asked Ecuador to extradite him. Philippe, who had
phoned Radio Carnival in Miami from the Dominican Republic to deny
involvement, meanwhile told reporters in Quito, "How am I going to mobilise
troops? By remote control?"


Five attackers killed
Police said that the one attacker to die during the shoot-out at the National
Palace was Chavret Milot, also a former soldier. Police chief Simeon said
that four other gunmen had been killed by a civilian crowd on Monday when
they were forced to abandon their vehicle after it was damaged by heavy
police fire in the Thomazeau neighborhood in western Port-au-Prince.
Government sources said the car they were driving had Dominican plates, and
speculated that the men were trying to reach Haiti's border.

Richardson's revelations contradict the accusations of opposition leaders who
claim the government staged the attack as a pretext to crack down on dissent.
In the days following the attempted coup, government supporters have set fire
to Convergence party offices and houses belonging to Convergence party
leaders. But the self-confessed attempted putschist also said he did not
think any member of the opposition coalition, the Democratic Convergence, had
participated in planning the failed coup.

Meanwhile, an unconfirmed report from a foreign resident in Port-au-Prince
claims that President Aristide's home in the suburb of Tabarre, some distance
away from the National Palace, was shot at during Sunday night's coup
attempt. An email message contained the following section, "Very early in the
morning (around 2:00 am) on December 17, 2001 armed gunmen, who were not
dressed as troops, shot at the home of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.
Although the gunmen did not try to invade the home of the President, they did
open fire while he was home with his wife Mildred and family. The President
and his family were scared, (but) unharmed (and) then taken to safety by the
Haitian police. ..........."