18644: (Chamberlain) Haiti-Uprising (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

   By MICHAEL NORTON

   PORT-AU-PRINCE, Feb 15 (AP) -- Defying government loyalists, hundreds of
activists demonstrated against President Jean-Bertrand Aristide on Sunday
as exiled paramilitary forces joined rebels in a bloody uprising that has
killed some 50 people.
   Shouting "Down with Aristide!" members of a broad opposition alliance
known as the Democratic Platform massed for the demonstration in
Port-au-Prince, saying they didn't support violence but shared the same
goal as the rebels -- ousting the embattled president.
   Militants loyal to Aristide crushed a similar anti-government
demonstration on Thursday, stoning opponents and blocking the protest
route. There has been a steady string of protests since mid-September.
   "We're still dealing with pacific, nonviolent means, but let me tell you
we have one goal," said Gilbert Leger, a lawyer and opposition member. "We
do support (rebel) efforts."
   The rebels launched a rebellion nine days ago from Gonaives, 70 miles
northwest of Port-au-Prince and Haiti's fourth-largest city, seeking to
oust Aristide. The rebels have fortified Gonaives with flaming barricades,
rusted cars and discarded refrigerators.
   Although the rebels are still thought to number less than Haiti's
5,000-member police force, paramilitary leaders and police living in exile
in the Dominican Republic have reportedly joined them.
   Two Dominican soldiers were killed on the Dominican border at Dajabon on
Saturday and their weapons were taken from them. It was unclear who was
responsible for the killings, but in the last few days a force of 20 men
led by an exiled paramilitary leader crossed the border.
   Louis-Jodel Chamblain, a former Haitian soldier who headed army death
squads in 1987 and a militia known as the Front for the Advancement and
Progress of Haiti, or FRAPH, which killed and maimed hundreds of people
between 1991 and 1994, was seen in Gonaives by several witnesses.
   Chamblain fled to the Dominican Republic after U.S. troops were sent to
restore Aristide to power and end a bloody dictatorship in 1994.
   Also spotted was Guy Philippe, a former police chief who fled to the
Dominican Republic after being accused by the Haitian government of
fomenting a coup in 2002.
   Witnesses reached by telephone said the men were working with rebels in
Gonaives but were massing in Saint-Michel de l'Atalaye, about 28 miles to
the east.
   Discontent has grown in this Caribbean country of 8 million people since
Aristide's party swept flawed legislative elections in 2000 and
international donors froze millions of dollars.
   However, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell said Friday the United
States and other nations "will accept no outcome that ... attempts to
remove the elected president of Haiti."
   The United States sent 20,000 troops to Haiti in 1994 to end a bloody
military dictatorship, restore Aristide and halt an exodus of refugees to
Florida.
   Washington says it plans no new military intervention.
   Rebel roadblocks have halted most food and fuel shipments since the
unrest began. Emergency supplies of flour, cooking oil and other basics are
projected to run out in four days in northern areas, where roadblocks are
guarded by rebels who have seized Gonaives and burned police stations in
more than a dozen other towns.
   Nearby, rebels blocked the road outside Trou-du-Nord leading to the
Dominican border at Ouanaminthe. Merchants said the barricade of boulders
and cars has cut supplies coming from the Dominican Republic, which shares
the island of Hispaniola with Haiti.
   U.N. representative Adama Guindo appealed to police and rebels to open a
"humanitarian corridor." Barricades have blocked deliveries to some 268,000
people dependent on food aid in northern Haiti.
   Rebels also have retaken the town of Dondon and burned dozens of houses
of Aristide supporters, according to witnesses who fled to the nearby
northern port of Cap-Haitien. Police retook the town Feb. 9, when Aristide
militants torched nine opposition houses.
   On Friday night, rebels also attacked police in Saint Suzanne, some 20
miles southeast of Cap-Haitien, according to witnesses reached by
telephone.
   Opposition politicians refuse to participate in new elections unless
Aristide steps down, and the rebels say they will lay down their weapons
only when he is ousted.