18311: (Chamberlain) Haiti-Unrest (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

   By MICHAEL NORTON

   GONAIVES, Feb 7 (AP) -- Crowds looted a police station and thousands of
protesters shouted "Victory!" as they vowed to repel any government attempt
to retake Haiti's fourth-largest city from armed militants who seized
control in a revolt against President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.
   Looters carried away guns and helmets Friday from the police station,
which still was smoldering from the bloody assault a day before. At least
seven people were killed and 20 wounded in Thursday's clashes between
police and gunmen from a group known as the Gonaives Resistance Front.
   Thousands marched onto the main highway leading to Gonaives on Friday,
chanting "Aristide must go! Too much blood has flowed!" Some rode in a
looted police truck, flaunting stolen police uniforms and weapons.
   The gunmen attacked symbols of Aristide's authority on Thursday, burning
the house of Mayor Stephan Moise and a gas station and small inn that he
owned. Flames also gutted offices of the central government's
representative.
   A day later former soldiers of Haiti's disbanded army carrying heavy
weapons patrolled the streets in support of the uprising in Gonaives, a
city with sprawling suburbs encompassing some 200,000 people.
   At the jail, where the attackers freed more than 100 prisoners, looters
dislodged metal gates and bars. Stores and schools remained shut and
severed telephone lines were strewn in streets covered with rubble.
   "The revolution has begun!" declared Dormessan Philippe, a 27-year-old
in the crowd milling outside the police station.
   Government spokesman Mario Dupuy called the attacks "terrorist acts" and
said police would restore order in Gonaives, 70 miles northwest of
Port-au-Prince, the capital. But no police were in sight on Saturday.
   The armed group, meanwhile, said it aims to seize other towns.
   The Gonaives Resistance Front once was allied with Aristide, and
residents accused it of terrorizing opponents of Haiti's leader. But the
group turned against Aristide last year, accusing his government of
assassinating its leader, Amiot Metayer, to prevent him from releasing
damaging information about the president. The government denies involvement
in the death.
   Aristide was ousted by the army in 1991 during his first term. He was
restored to power in a 1994 U.S. invasion and then disbanded the army,
deploying a new civilian police force to keep order.
   Former soldiers opposed to the president have been blamed for a series
of attacks in the past year that killed at least 25 people in the Central
Plateau, east of Gonaives near the Dominican border.
   The Dominican Republic, which shares the Caribbean island of Hispaniola
with Haiti, has ordered its military to tighten border security.
   At least 58 people have been killed in Haiti since mid-September in
clashes between police, government opponents and Aristide supporters.
   In Port-au-Prince on Friday, police arrested human rights activist Ketly
Julien and three of her colleagues, charging them with plotting to
overthrow the government, Radio Vision 2000 said. Julien's Mobile Institute
for Democratic Education has been critical of the police and government.
   Discontent has grown among Haiti's 8 million people since Aristide's
party swept flawed legislative elections in 2000 and international donors
froze hundreds of millions of dollars in aid.
   Opposition leaders refuse to participate in any new vote unless Aristide
resigns, which he refuses to do before his term ends in 2006.