18378: Esser: Two Haitian Towns Retaken (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From.: D. Esser torx@joimail.com


washingtonpost.com

Two Haitian Towns Retaken
Armed Revolt Spreads to Country's Second-Largest City

By Scott Wilson
Washington Post Foreign Service
Tuesday, February 10, 2004; Page A13

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti, Feb. 9 -- The government of President
Jean-Bertrand Aristide appeared to regain ground Monday in its effort
to quell an armed uprising, retaking two of nearly a dozen towns
seized by rebels seeking to force Aristide from office.

Government officials said the Haitian National Police, outnumbered
and outgunned in recent days, had regained control of the central
coast city of St.-Marc, captured by anti-government rebels two days
earlier. Police also reoccupied the town of Grand-Goave along Haiti's
southern finger with no reported casualties.

But the government faced a fresh assault in the north where fighting
erupted on the outskirts of Cap-Haitien, the country's second-largest
city, which has remained relatively calm throughout a four-day armed
insurrection. Rebels briefly seized the police station in Dondon,
just outside the city. Officials said the insurgents were overwhelmed
by a combination of police troops and members of a pro-Aristide
militia, which has augmented the thinly stretched government forces
in recent days.

"The population in both cities is for peace, safety and security,"
Yvon Neptune, Haiti's prime minister, said in a telephone interview
after visiting St.-Marc and Grand-Goave. "That's why the population
has welcomed back the police."

But the mixed results underscored the challenges facing the police
force as it attempts to put down the uprising, which began Thursday
in Gonaives, Haiti's fourth-largest city. The battle is the biggest
challenge to Aristide's rule since he returned to office three years
ago. Although the heart of the rebellion was confined to cities along
Haiti's central coast, leaders of the armed group said Monday that as
many as 11 police stations in scattered towns across the country have
come under their control.

Aristide became Haiti's first freely elected president in 1990, only
to be ousted nine months later in a military coup. The United States
sent troops to Haiti in 1994 to restore his administration, resisted
at the time by a paramilitary force sponsored by the ruling military
junta. Aristide served out the remainder of his term, and was
reelected in November 2000 on a populist pledge to lift up Haiti's
downtrodden.

But groups opposed to his government have coalesced into a potent
force against his cash-starved administration over the past two years.

The rebel group calls itself the Revolutionary Artibonite Resistance
Front and says it is the armed wing of a civic movement of business
leaders, students and other Haitians who have been calling for
Aristide's resignation for months. Recently, some of their rallies
have turned bloody after coming under attack by groups linked to
Aristide's ruling Lavalas Party.

At least 40 people have died during the recent uprising, which
government officials contend is part of an orchestrated effort. The
main opposition coalition, known as the Group of 184, has remained
largely silent since the uprising began. In the past, the group's
leaders have declined to condemn the rebels' violent tactics, which
came into public view late last year when they took over the Gonaives
slum of Raboteau.

The rebel group, which formed in Gonaives, 70 miles north of this
capital, comprises a number of former Aristide supporters embittered
by the president's turn against them in recent months. Some of its
foot soldiers relied on Lavalas patronage for their livelihoods,
forming a gang-like network formerly known as the Cannibal Army. But
at its upper echelons the group appears to be led by former members
of the Haitian military, dissolved in 1994 when Aristide returned to
power, and the paramilitary group that opposed him.

At least one armed pro-Lavalas group remains in St.-Marc and may have
played a role in retaking the city, which lies 48 miles north of the
capital. But there is no such force left in Gonaives, and 150 Haitian
police troops were overwhelmed Saturday after being sent in to retake
the city. Rebel leaders said 14 police officers were killed in the
fighting, although government officials said the number has been
exaggerated to boost the rebels' perceived strength.

The U.S. government has been at odds with Aristide's government since
legislative elections in 2000 that were widely considered fraudulent.

© 2004 The Washington Post Company