16864: (Hermantin)Miami-Herald-Slum suffers in 7-day gang war (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: leonie hermantin <lhermantin@hotmail.com>


Posted on Tue, Sep. 30, 2003

Slum suffers in 7-day gang war
A weeklong siege sparked by a gang leader's murder keeps parts of Gonaives
and its residents in a virtual lockdown.
BY JANE REGAN
Special to The Herald

GONAIVES, Haiti - The seaside slums of Raboteau and Jubilee are sealed shut.
Police enter the neighborhoods of crumbling cement-block homes, tangled
illegal electricity hook-ups and stinking open sewers at their own risk.

Barricades of burning tires, rocks, car hulks, smashed bottles and wrecked
market kiosks kept out any ''unfriendlies'' for a seventh day Monday in a
smoldering war between police and the ''Cannibal Army,'' a gang whose leader
was found murdered last week.

Since then, the ''Army'' and its supporters -- hundreds of mostly destitute
young men -- have taken to the streets each day, setting up barricades,
torching the homes of people they think helped murder Amiot Métayer and
holding this city of some 200,000 under virtual siege.

They have also been demanding the resignation of President Jean Bertrand
Aristide, whom they blame for Métayer's death -- even though the gang leader
was long an Aristide supporter.

ARMED AND UNIFIED

Each morning, hundreds of marchers led by armed gunmen have been sweeping
out of the slums, through downtown, and then back into the friendly
territory. Sometimes theres a clash with police, sometimes there are
casualties. At least one man has been killed and 14 wounded.

But so far, the citys poorest residents, frustrated by years of poverty and
empty promises, support the ``Cannibal Army.''

''You cant not agree with the movement,'' said Ronald Dorsaint, 23 years old
and a high school student. ``Métayer was one of us.''

The two-room home in Jubilee that Dorsaint shared with his parents and 11
brothers, sisters and cousins went up in flames when an angry mob torched
the nearby home of Hubert Adéclat, the father of Gonaive's police chief, on
Monday.

Apart from a four-hour truce on Saturday, businesses, schools, the
courthouse and city hall have all been closed for seven days now, the old
colonial-style shutters tightly bolted and padlocked.

Downtown is deserted except for those who warily watch the pick-up trucks
carrying black-hooded police in full body armor speed by, trailing clouds of
dust.

Gonaives has only about 60 policemen.

Officials in the capital city of Port au Prince, 95 miles to the south, deny
any connection to Métayer's death.

And in Gonaive, police officials insist they have everything under control.

''We control the city,'' National Police Commissaire Camille Marcellus said
over the weekend. ``They do what they want in their neighborhood, but they
cant come downtown.''

But the mayor and judges havent been seen around Gonaive in a week. And in
seven days, there have been almost as many shootouts between police and
armed protesters.

COLLATERAL EFFECTS

The standoff is hurting people like Germaine Pierre, 50, a mother of two who
usually sells spices in the market.

''We havent eaten today,'' she said as she stood in front of her two-room
home. ``The markets are closed, and we dont have any money anyway.''

On Sunday, when even the poorest usually eat a bit of meat, her family ate
fried dough.

But Pierre and her neighbor, tailor Jules Jean-Baptiste, 46, say they still
support the protests.

''We have no choice but to see this through,'' said Jean-Baptiste, once a
supporter of Aristide and his Lavalas Family party. ``I cant say I wasnt
Lavalas. Everybody was Lavalas. But now young and old are falling. This has
to end.''

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