18672: (Chamberlain) Haiti-Uprising (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

   By MICHAEL NORTON

   PORT-AU-PRINCE, Feb 16 (AP) -- A rebel force trying to oust President
Jean-Bertrand Aristide grew in size as former exiled paramilitary troops
joined the insurrection and aid workers hurried to get doctors and supplies
to the cut-off north.
   A humanitarian convoy was expected leave Monday from Haiti's capital,
Port-au-Prince, for St. Marc, a northern port city where rebels burned the
police station and torched a clinic. The Geneva-based International
Committee of the Red Cross would lead the convoy, officials said.
   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 days in northern areas, where roadblocks are
guarded by rebels.
   The rebels launched a rebellion on Feb. 5 from Gonaives, 70 miles
northwest of Port-au-Prince. Although the rebels are thought to number less
than Haiti's 5,000-member police force, exiled paramilitary leaders and
police have reportedly joined them.
   One of those reportedly is 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. The group
allegedly killed and maimed hundreds of people between 1991 and 1994.
   Several people in Gonaives said they saw Chamblain, who fled to the
Dominican Republic in the mid-'90s.
   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.
   In the video obtained by Associated Press Television News, Philippe
appears laughing while surrounded by a handful of rebels Saturday in
Gonaives.
   Philippe, 35, said he has been in the Dominican Republic and Ecuador
since fleeing Haiti in 2000.
   "We don't have any platform," he said. "Our fight is for a better
country ... We are fighting for the presidency, we're fighting for the
people, for our convictions."
   Philippe said the rebels have an arsenal of weapons and he doesn't think
it's in U.S. interests to pursue another intervention.
   "We don't want to fight with them," he said. "We are fighting for our
own cause."
   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 Chamblain reportedly led a commando of 20
men across the border.
   Dominican President Hipolito Mejia said Sunday that authorities would
arrest any Haitian trying to enter the Dominican Republic suspected of
taking part in the uprising.
   Meanwhile in Jamaica, police detained 10 Haitians, including eight
police officers, who arrived Saturday by boat on the eastern shore
requesting asylum. Police seized eight guns and ammunition. Immigration
authorities were reviewing their asylum requests.
   As the suspense built with the revolt in the north, more than 1,000
anti-government demonstrators held a peaceful march on Sunday.
   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.
   Demonstrators ended the peaceful protest march when police told them
they would have to change the route because of security concerns.
   While there has been no reported rise in the numbers of Haitians leaving
for U.S. shores, Aristide's wife -- U.S.-born Mildred Trouillot Aristide --
reportedly flew to Fort Lauderdale, Fla. over the weekend. Haitian
presidential spokeswoman Michelle Karshan said the first lady left to
attend a funeral and would return Monday.
   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.
   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.
   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.