18617: (Hermantin) Sun-Sentinel-Hunger, anger fuel fights (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: leonie hermantin <lhermantin@hotmail.com>

Hunger, anger fuel fights

By Karla D. Shores
Education Writer
Posted February 14 2004


They are driven by a brother's revenge, a group of young thugs' desire to
rise to power, and hunger -- both for food and change.

The ragged Cannibal Army, now called the Artibonite Resistance Front or
Gonaives Resistance Front, is made of young men and boys who return to their
shantytown of Raboteau after pushing the drug of intimidation and
destruction on neighboring communities.

Since the brutal death of their leader Amiot Metayer last fall, they have
spurred violence against government officials and police. So far 49 people
have died in the clashes this week in the country's northwestern region,
forcing thousands to leave their towns.

There are other groups like theirs; clans of armed boys and young men fueled
by hunger and anger. Many slum communities embrace these smaller gangs as
protectors.

But the Cannibal Army, once a pro-Aristide movement, is now rumored to be
600 strong and is recognized by the U.S. State Department as the country's
largest gang army.

And many fear this week-old thug war of slash and burn is only gaining
momentum because of the story behind the rage.

"The violence in Gonaives appears to be motivated by the death of Amiot
Metayer, who is known as "Cubain"," said a U.S. State Department official
this week during a press conference on the civil unrest in the western
Hemisphere's poorest country.

"His family and his former gang members believe that he was murdered on
orders of Haitian President Jean Bertrand Aristide. So for them, this is a
personal vendetta."

The Cannibal Army has beginnings in the mid-1980s as a pro-Aristide armed
gang. Rebel Amiot Metayer led the vigilantes with one hand and helped guide
Aristide to the Palais National with the other in 1990, giving Metayer carte
blanche access to the Presidential Palace, according to Jocelyn McCalla,
executive director of the National Coalition of Haitian Rights, an advocacy
group based in New York.

Aristide, once enamored of his supporters, started losing touch with the
Cannibal Army, which draws its name from the original inhabitants of
Hispaniola, the island Haiti shares with the Dominican Republic.

McCalla said Aristide funneled weapons to Metayer under dictator Jean-Claude
"Baby Doc" Duvalier. Aristide denies fueling the Cannibal Army. But
Metayer's relationship with Aristide soured under pressure from
international groups trying to broker a settlement between Aristide and the
political opposition, ending in Metayer's brutal death in the dusty streets
of Gonaives last September.

Amiot Metayer "was your basic gang leader whose only motto was `if it's good
for me I'll take it,'" said McCalla.

"They found him dead one day with his eyes shot out and bullet holes in his
stomach and they said they were going to avenge their leader."

Their new leader, Metayer's 33-year-old younger brother Buteur Metayer,
keeps them going to avenge his brother's death. Their youth makes them
fearless.

"For the Cannibal Army not to take power it would require intervention by an
international group or military force," said McCalla. "There's a great fear
that things are going to get much worse."

Karla Shores can be reached at kshores@sun-sentinel.com or 954-356-4552.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

_________________________________________________________________
Choose now from 4 levels of MSN Hotmail Extra Storage - no more account
overload! http://click.atdmt.com/AVE/go/onm00200362ave/direct/01/