18686: Burnham: Globe and Mail (fwd): Anti-Aristide March Falters a Second Time (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: thor burnham <thorald_mb@hotmail.com>

Anti-Aristide march falters a second time

Opposition worries about rebel alliance with ex-leader of Haitian death
squads

By PAUL KNOX
Monday, February 16, 2004 - Page A10

PORT-AU-PRINCE -- Chanting and dancing, demonstrators poured into the
streets yesterday to demand the resignation of Haitian President
Jean-Bertrand Aristide, but divisions among them halted the march with less
than half its route completed.

Police blocked a militant group from branching off along an unauthorized
route, then fired gunshots into the air as a rock-throwing battle broke out
between the students and suspected government supporters. With the march
stalled, organizers abandoned attempts to take it through the downtown area
of Haiti's capital.

It was the second time in four days they had aborted a protest, and amounted
to a further setback for the largely middle- and upper-class movement
seeking to topple Mr. Aristide peacefully. A similar march was called off
Thursday after pro-Aristide thugs attacked protesters and set up burning
barricades to stop them reaching the departure point.

Advocates of non-violence were further shaken Saturday when a fired police
chief and a former leader of paramilitary death squads said they had joined
armed rebels in north-central Haiti and were planning to contribute troops
and guns to their cause.

Guy Philippe, the ex-chief accused of plotting a coup d'état in 2002,
surfaced in the rebel-held city of Gonaïves along with Louis-Jodel
Chamblain, a top leader of the feared Front for the Advancement and Progress
of Haiti. FRAPH targeted Mr. Aristide's followers for assassination in the
early 1990s.

Before yesterday's march, opposition leaders said they feared word of the
new rebel alliance would frighten Haitians away from anti-government
activity.

"It's sending very, very confusing messages to the public," said André
Apaid, a leading protest organizer.

More than 50 people have died in the past month in violence aimed at
removing Mr. Aristide, who was elected to a five-year term in 2000 in a vote
foreign observers said was seriously flawed. A former priest who vowed to
improve the lot of desperately poor Haitians, he is accused by protest
leaders of amassing a personal fortune through corruption and arming street
gangs to intimidate or attack his opponents.

"There is no justice in this country . . . there's no work and no
education," said Jules, an unemployed 33-year-old who said he feared
retribution from pro-Aristide thugs if his full name were used.

Protest leaders had planned that yesterday's march would follow one of two
main routes leading to the downtown area from Pétionville, a wealthy suburb
high above the fetid slums near the waterfront. But they agreed late
Saturday to follow a more tortuous path through the narrow side streets
after police said they believed pro-Aristide gangs would attack the march on
the original route.

The protest had attracted about 4,000 when militants refused to make the
detour. They criticized organizers for agreeing to the change, saying it
would thwart plans to have the protesters' ranks swell as the march moved
downtown.

"We want to go through there, but they never let us," said Michel Sylvain, a
30-year-old agronomist who said he had to close his business because of
economic mismanagement by Mr. Aristide.

Several groups surged past police barricades and started along the
unauthorized route. But they could not break through positions farther
along, manned by tactical units in full riot gear.

At one point, rocks and a Molotov cocktail were lobbed toward the marchers
from behind a high fence. Claiming that government supporters had attacked
from the same location during previous protests, several militants threw
rocks toward it before police chased them from the zone.

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