18414: (Chamberlain) Haiti-Rebels (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

   By MICHAEL NORTON

   PORT-AU-PRINCE, Feb 10 (AP) -- Some helped Jean-Bertrand Aristide win
the presidency. Others helped oust him in a 1991 coup. Haiti's bloody
revolt has brought together people who were once mortal enemies.
   The rebel leader in the largest city under the militants' control, for
example, was part of a gang that was attacking Aristide opponents and
setting fire to their homes just a year ago.
   Today Wilfort Ferdinand, 27, is the rebel-appointed police chief of
Gonaives, where his militia on Thursday led an uprising that has spread to
nearly a dozen cities and towns and threatens Aristide's presidency.
   At least 42 people, including several police officers, have been killed.
   "We with weapons are few in numbers, but we have the support of the
people and are therefore invincible!" boasted Ferdinand, brandishing an
M-16 assault weapon.
   His ragtag militia is getting some unexpected help from former soldiers
of an army that Aristide disbanded in 1995, four years after soldiers
ousted him and he was restored to power. At least 50 of the ex-soldiers,
heavily armed and dressed in old fatigues, have been operating for a year
outside Gonaives in what the government calls an "armed wing of the
opposition." They have killed at least 30 people in attacks on government
officials and towns.
   It is unclear how many are in Gonaives and what role they play in the
insurrection, but a rebel leader told The Associated Press "they have come
to lend us a helping hand."
   The military, which has staged some 30 coups, traditionally supported an
elite that for decades subjugated the poor majority among Haiti's 8 million
people.
   Aristide, who was restored to power by a U.S. intervention in 1994, rose
to his position by championing the poor. He was re-elected in 2000 on a
platform promising "peace of mind, peace in the belly."
   But he has lost support as violence has escalated in the wake of flawed
legislative elections. International donors have frozen aid and
increasingly miserable Haitians have watched a new and corrupt elite of
"gran manje" or "fat cats" emerge.
   "Aristide has enriched himself and his cronies while we are starving to
death," said student leader Philippe Dormessan. "All classes of society are
united in saying he must go."
   Unarmed groups like his have helped man barricades and kept watch at
night against any attempt at a counteroffensive by police and Aristide
supporters.
   The disparity in the ideologies of those leading and supporting the
uprising is mirrored in an opposition coalition of political parties,
civic, business and human rights groups that include one-time Aristide
supporters, coup supporters and students who were barely in their teens
when the 1991 coup was staged.
   The coalition has distanced itself from the rebels, denouncing the
violence.
   Gonaives, Haiti's fourth largest city with 200,000 residents, is
historically an Aristide stronghold. Ferdinand's self-styled Cannibal Army,
admired by slumdwellers for its generosity with ill-gotten gains, turned on
Aristide after gang leader Amiot Metayer was assassinated in September.
   Ferdinand and other gang members say Aristide armed them to terrorize
political enemies, and accuse the government of ordering Metayer's killing
to prevent him publishing allegedly damaging information about the
president. The government denies all involvement with the gang.
   For some, choosing sides has become a matter of survival.
   "I voted for Aristide," said garage mechanic Jules Auguste. "And I
regret it beyond words."