18306: (Chamberlain) Anti-Aristide gunmen take over Haitian city (later story) (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

     By Marco Trujillo

     GONAIVES, Haiti, Feb 6 (Reuters) - An armed group opposed to Haiti's
embattled President Jean-Bertrand Aristide took over the poor Caribbean
nation's fourth-largest city on Friday, burning down the mayor's home and
releasing scores of prisoners.
     The gunmen, who used to belong to a pro-Aristide gang, attacked the
police station in Gonaives on Thursday and said they intended to move on
from the northern city and "liberate" others, including Cap-Haitien,
Haiti's second-largest city.
     The Red Cross said seven people were killed in the shootout during
Thursday's attack on the police post, one of the bloodiest confrontations
in escalating tensions between the government of the poorest country in the
Americas and opponents who want Aristide to step down.
     On Friday, shops were shuttered in the city where Haiti declared
independence from France and freedom from slavery in 1804.
     A charred body lay near the police station. The head had been slashed
with a machete. Another smoldering corpse lay nearby, according to a
Reuters Television crew.
     Twenty-two people had been shot, said Red Cross worker Raul Elisse.
Three of Thursday's dead were police officers.
     Looters had stripped the burned remains of the police post and a fire
station, and set fire to gasoline stations.
     The rebels, numbering around 300, were joined by hundreds of civilians
as they raced around the dilapidated city in trucks on Friday, occasionally
firing into the air.
     Government spokesman Mario Dupuy said the authorities intended to
re-establish order in Gonaives, 105 miles (170 km) from the capital
Port-au-Prince.
     But journalists said an attempt by police on Friday to re-enter
Gonaives met with gunfire and their helicopter had to retreat.
     "These guys have heavy weapons, weapons that even the police don't
have," said Guy Delva, secretary general of the Association of Haitian
Journalists.
     Witnesses said the group had freed scores of inmates from a prison in
the same compound as the police station, and torched the home and warehouse
of pro-Aristide Mayor Stephen Moise. No police were in sight.
     "No one would prevent them from doing it. They can do what they want,"
Delva said.
     Rebel leader Buter Metayer said his group, the Artibonite Resistance
Front, would only hand in their weapons if Aristide stepped down.
     "We tell the national and international community clearly that once
President Aristide departs, we will commit ourselves to handing over our
guns," Metayer told Reuters Television.
     The gunmen once belonged to the Cannibal Army, which had supported
Aristide but turned against him when its leader, Amiot Metayer, was killed
in September. Buter Metayer accused Aristide of being behind his brother's
murder.
     Aristide, a former Roman Catholic priest, is under rising pressure to
resign. Opposition groups accuse him of corruption and human rights
violations and millions of dollars in aid have been frozen over the
disputed outcome of parliamentary elections in 2000.
     Aristide was elected Haiti's first democratic leader in 1990 but was
ousted in a coup within months. He was restored to power in 1994 after a
U.S.-led invasion and won a second five-year term in 2000.