18450: (Chamberlain) Aristide supporters sweep for rebels in Haiti (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

     By Michael Christie

     SAINT MARC, Haiti, Feb 11 (Reuters) - Police and supporters of Haitian
President Jean-Bertrand Aristide shot dead three people, smashed down doors
and trashed homes in a sweep through a Haitian city on Wednesday to mop up
remnants of an armed revolt there, residents said.
     Gunfire rang out over a slum area and a pall of smoke rose from one
burning building in Saint Marc, a coastal city 65 miles (105 km) from the
capital that was taken over by rebels in Haiti's armed revolt at the
weekend.
     Authorities took back Saint Marc on Monday, but two pockets of the
city had remained in rebel hands.
     Residents said three people were killed, shot by police and supporters
of Aristide's ruling Lavalas Family party who formed a band called
"sweep-up" and were searching for suspected rebels and weapons.
     The armed revolt began last Thursday in the city of Gonaives, the
country's fourth-largest city and the birthplace of its independence from
France 200 years ago, when a gang that once supported Aristide and has
turned against him drove out the police and took control.
     The revolt spread to several cities and towns and threatened the rule
of Aristide, a former Roman Catholic priest who was once hailed as a
champion of Haiti's fledgling democracy but is now widely criticized by his
opponents for abuse of civil rights and political thuggery.
     More than 35 people have been killed in the violence, which came after
months of almost daily protests organized by political opposition parties.
     The government has taken back two cities, Saint Marc and Grand Goave.
     But in Gonaives, a city of 200,000 people about 40 miles (65 km) north
of Saint Marc, heavily-armed rebels manned barricades and cruised the
streets in police vehicles on Wednesday, saying they were prepared for any
counter-attack.
     Buter Metayer, leader of the armed gang controlling the city, said his
group was tough and prepared for anything. The rebels said they had
appointed a new mayor of the "independent city of Gonaives" and established
their own police force.
     In a slum area of Saint Marc, a young and distraught girl called Mina
said that the Lavalas supporters came, broke into her house, took out three
men and "made them lie on the ground and shot them."
     Mina, tears streaming down her face, made a motion of somebody holding
a rifle to a person's head.
     Bullet cartridges littered the ground outside homes that had been
broken into and searched.
     One man calling himself only Marckunt and who belonged to the
pro-government "sweep-up" militia, said, "the police came to reinforce us
against the terrorists."
     He said 20 homes belonging to Lavalas supporters had been burned down
in the city while the rebels were in control.
     In Gonaives, Metayer cruised the streets in a seized police vehicle
with a large armed escort and said there was no place in the country of 8
million people that had such security.
     Metayer's brother Amiot, who had run the formerly pro-government
Cannibal Army militia that terrorized Gonaives residents, was killed last
September.
     Buter Metayer, 33, said Aristide was behind the killing and turned his
gunmen against the government.
     Washington had sharp words on Tuesday for the man it once supported
with 20,000 troops, saying the crisis would require big changes in the way
the country is governed. A senior official said this could mean Aristide
stepping down.
     The United States led an invasion in 1994 to put Aristide back in
power after a military coup had ousted him just months after he became the
country's first democratically-elected leader in 1991. Aristide was
re-elected for a second term in 2000, but his popularity has dived.