18439: Severe: LA Times Story: On Rebellion (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Constantin Severe <csevere@hotmail.com>

THE WORLD
Huge Protest to Test Resolve of Aristide
Violence spreads in Haiti, where foes of the regime are organizing a
peaceful demonstration for Thursday that could add to the unrest.


     Photos


In ruins
(Carolyn Cole / LAT)
February 10, 2004

Unyielding
(Carolyn Cole / LAT)

Saint Marc
(Carolyn Cole / LAT)
February 10, 2004
Graphics



February 10, 2004
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REVOLTS

VIOLENCE

HAITI

DEMONSTRATIONS

GOVERNMENT

HAITI REVOLTS GOVERNMENT DEMONSTRATIONS VIOLENCE

ARISTIDE JEAN BERTRAND

THE WORLD











By Carol J. Williams, Times Staff Writer


PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — Violent clashes spread to the historic city of Cap
Haitien on Tuesday as government forces and their opponents prepared to
square off for a showdown Thursday that diplomats say will test President
Jean-Bertrand Aristide's willingness to restore calm even at the price of
his own power.

Haiti's mainstream political opposition has called on supporters to stage a
massive but peaceful demonstration against Aristide's government. The
protest could add to the unrest gripping about a dozen towns in this
Caribbean island nation.

About 50 people have died in the last week, according to local media and the
Red Cross. International relief agencies and watchdog groups have urged the
government and opposition groups to take steps to ease the conflict.

Aristide foes say they are protesting the president's corruption and the
repression of political opponents. They want him to relinquish his office
and make way for a new government.

As the country braced for more unrest, the U.S. State Department on Tuesday
authorized the departure of family members and nonemergency employees of the
U.S. Embassy in Port-au-Prince.

The travel warning also urged private American citizens to leave Haiti if
they could do so safely.

"Americans are reminded of the potential for spontaneous demonstrations and
violent confrontations between government supporters and students and other
groups that oppose the government of Haiti," the warning said.

In Washington, State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said the Bush
administration recognized that "reaching a political settlement will require
some fairly thorough changes in the way Haiti is governed."

Referring to a proposal to end the crisis by the Caribbean Community, the
15-nation regional bloc known as Caricom, Boucher said, "I think that could
indeed involve changes in Aristide's position."

The Haitian leader is likely to face growing demands for his resignation if
he allows opponents to demonstrate freely. Critics fear he could crack down
brutally on Thursday's protests if he believes that they could generate
momentum for his political opponents.

Aristide's allies, including Prime Minister Yvon Neptune, have described the
deadly clashes as a plot to force a coup.

On Tuesday, three Cabinet members described those seeking Aristide's ouster
as "terrorists" bent on destroying the country, making no distinction
between mainstream political opposition in the capital and the armed gangs
battling police in a dozen cities.

Armed thugs struck back at opposition supporters in Cap Haitien, Haiti's
second-largest city, setting fire to a restaurant owned by an Aristide
critic and throwing up flaming barricades to prevent rebels in nearby Dondon
from spreading their revolt to the northern port city, Radio Vision 2000
reported.

The attacks on rebels involved in the uprising and figures associated with
Aristide's political opposition have caused concern among diplomats about
how Aristide's police force will react to Thursday's events, expected to be
the first protests in the capital since last Thursday, when the countryside
was swept up in gruesome attacks and reprisals.

"What happens here on the ground in the next days or weeks will have a big
role to play in determining the prospects for a political solution and its
shape," a senior U.S. official here said.

Caricom has asked Aristide to provide assurances that he would bring rivals
back into the electoral arena.

Opposition parties refused to field candidates in the presidential election
of November 2000, leaving Aristide virtually unchallenged. Parliamentary
elections six months earlier were marred by attacks on opposition groups by
government supporters.

Pro-Aristide gangs continued to attack opposition rallies, prompting the
opposition to boycott preparations for elections that should have taken
place last year.

With the expiration of most deputies' mandates in January, the Haitian
parliament has ceased to function and Aristide rules by decree.

On Tuesday, the United Nations World Food Program in Geneva warned that road
barricades were hampering the delivery of aid to 270,000 people in the
famine-ravaged regions south of Cap Haitien.

It was in the territory around Cap Haitien that slaves rebelled against
French colonial rule in 1791, leading to the creation of the first black
nation.

At a news conference in Port-au-Prince, three officials in Aristide's
government portrayed the crisis as an opposition plot to destabilize the
country.

"The entire population must work together with the police to fight this
phenomenon of terrorism," said national security chief Jean-Gerard Debreuil.

He and Interior Minister Joceleme Privet suggested that many members of the
National Police, which has been Haiti's only armed force since Aristide
disbanded the army in 1995, have refused to defend their positions against
the rebel onslaught out of concern for the lives of bystanders

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