18588: Burnam: The Globe and Mail (fwd): Haiti's "peaceful people" erupt in violence (different post from earlier one)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: thor burnham <thorald_mb@hotmail.com>

Wednesday, Feb. 11, 2004

Haiti's 'peaceful people' erupt in violence


By PAUL KNOX

PORT-AU-PRINCE -- Charles Baker doesn't want you to get the wrong idea.

"We're peaceful people," the outspoken Haitian factory owner said yesterday.
In his close-clipped grey hair, white shirt and tie, he could be a candidate
for the U.S. Senate, rather than what he is -- a leader with an opposition
that has been staging demonstrations for months against President
Jean-Bertrand Aristide.

Mr. Baker wants to make sure a visitor distinguishes between Mr. Aristide's
democratic opponents and the armed anti-Aristide gangs that have overthrown
detachments of the Canadian-trained Haitian National Police and seized
control of 11 towns in recent days.

But it may be a fine distinction, because there's something else Mr. Baker
would like you to know about the unrest that has seized this impoverished
Caribbean country of eight million people.

"We're all fighting for the same thing," he said. "Aristide has to resign."

A rebel gang formerly known as the Cannibal Army and now apparently going by
several names, remained in firm control of Gonaives, Haiti's fourth largest
city, last night.

The rebels, former Aristide loyalists who turned against him after their
leader was slain, seized the city last Thursday in an uprising that left at
least 14 people dead. At least 28 more have died in clashes elsewhere.

Rebel roadblocks blocked aid to Gonaives yesterday, and the United Nations
World Food Program said it was unable to deliver emergency food shipments to
tens of thousands of Haitians in the country's north-central region. Mr.
Baker said a Red Cross team of doctors was also unable to reach the town.

In Cap-Haitien on the northern coast, Associated Press reported that drunken
pro-Aristide youths brandished pistols and threw rocks at passing cars as
they manned burning barricades. Some reports also said armed government
supporters had taken back the towns of St.-Marc, Dondon and Grand-Goave.

The local rebellions, manned by thugs, former soldiers of the now-disbanded
Haitian army and apparently some disaffected police, represent a major
escalation of the anti-Aristide protests.

Any coexistence between them and the merchants, students, professionals and
opposition politicians who have been staging demonstrations in
Port-au-Prince would probably be uneasy, as Mr. Baker acknowledged. But he
said that unless Mr. Aristide steps down soon, it will be hard for the
moderates to maintain momentum, "and the radicals will take over."

The President, a former priest and champion of the poor, was instrumental in
overthrowing dictator Jean-François (Baby Doc) Duvalier in 1986.

Mr. Aristide was elected president in 1991, deposed by the army and returned
to power in a U.S.-led invasion in 1994. He was elected again in 2000 to a
six-year term, but international observers said the vote was deeply flawed
and most international aid was cut off.

Essentially, Mr. Aristide's word is now the law of the land in Haiti. The
mandate of its last parliament expired on Jan. 12, and although he has said
elections will be held by June, he currently rules by decree.

His opponents say he has enriched himself while in office and resorted to
violence to keep himself in power. But the President has dismissed his
critics as rich Haitians seeking to maintain traditional privileges and to
keep the bulk of the people in misery.

Chatting in a building used for meetings of several civic groups
spearheading the protests, Mr. Baker said he returned to Haiti four years
ago after a decade in the United States. He was persuaded that with
Washington's backing, Mr. Aristide would lead a political renewal in a
country that has seen 30 coups d'état in its 200-year history. "I believed
in [former U.S. president] Bill Clinton -- we were going to have democracy
in Haiti," he said.

But his apparel plant, which made pants and uniforms for U.S. customers and
once employed 800 workers, is now shut down.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/ArticleNews/TPStory/LAC/20040211/HAITI11/Columnists/Columnist?author=Paul+Knox

_________________________________________________________________
Protect your PC - get McAfee.com VirusScan Online
http://clinic.mcafee.com/clinic/ibuy/campaign.asp?cid=3963