18704: (Chamberlain) Haiti-Uprising (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

   By MARK STEVENSON

   GONAIVES, Feb 16 (AP) -- Haiti's rebellion spread to the central city of
Hinche on Monday as rebels and former soldiers killed at least three
officers at a police station. President Jean-Bertrand Aristide pleaded for
foreign help to stop the bloodshed.
   The rebels descended on the police station in Hinche, about 70 miles
northwest of Port-au-Prince, according to a Haitian security official who
spoke on condition of anonymity. They killed district police chief Maxime
Jonas, pushed police out of the city and threatened government supporters,
the official said.
   At least 56 people have died since the rebellion aimed at ousting
Aristide exploded Feb. 5 in the city of Gonaives.
   About 50 rebels descended on the police station in Hinche, about 70
miles northwest of Port-au-Prince. They killed district police chief Maxime
Jonas, pushed police out of the city and freed prisoners from the jail
before burning the station.
   Louis-Jodel Chamblain, a former Haitian soldier who led a paramilitary
group known as the Front for the Advancement and Progress of Haiti, or
FRAPH, which killed and maimed hundreds of people between 1991 and 1994,
reportedly led the attack, according to witnesses.
   The attack was considered a serious blow and the first to the city of
50,000 people where corn, millet and beans are produced. The rebels now
control most roads leading in and out of the Artibonite district, a rich
agricultural area home to almost 1 million people.
   "Blood has flowed in Hinche," Arstide told reporters at a news
conference late Monday, saying he had asked for technical assistance from
the Organization of American States. "It may be that the police cannot cope
with this kind of attack."
   Aristide refused to talk about strategies for halting the unrest or
whether he would ask for military assistance. He did, however, say the
government would use peaceful means to quell the uprising that has
prevented food, fuel and medical shipments.
   "A group of terrorists are breaking democratic order," Aristide said.
"We have the responsibility to use the law and dialogue to take a peaceful
way."
   Rebels armed with machetes and rifles escorted an aid convoy led by the
Geneva-based International Committee of the Red Cross into Gonaives on
Monday. The convoy was carrying 1.6 tons of supplies, including blood and
surgical equipment.
   A surgeon and a physician were also sent to treat some 40 people wounded
in the fighting.
   "We are here to bring urgently needed medical assistance to Gonaives,"
Pedro Isely, leader of the Red Cross mission in Haiti, said Monday after
arriving in the city.
   In addition to the medical relief, the international non-governmental
organization, CARE, began distributing food to people in Gonaives. About
50,000 people will receive a gallon of vegetable oil, while others will get
sacks of cereals, said Sandy Laumark, director of CARE in Haiti. The
distribution will last about 10 days.
   The rebels launched the rebellion from Gonaives, 70 miles northwest of
Port-au-Prince, unleashing a deadly wave of violence that has spread to
more than a dozen towns. Both sides have suffered casualties.
   On Sunday night, Aristide loyalists reportedly killed two
anti-government supporters in the port town of St. Marc.
   Although the rebels are thought to number less than Haiti's 5,000-member
police force, exiled paramilitary leaders and police have joined their
forces, vowing to oust Aristide.
   "They have joined us. We have created a national resistance," Winter
Etienne, one of the rebel leaders in Gonaives, said Monday. "We're going to
take a major part of Haiti."
   Also helping is 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.
   "We don't have any platform," said Philippe, 35, in an interview taped
Saturday that was obtained by Associated Press Television News. "Our fight
is for a better country ... We are fighting for the presidency, we're
fighting for the people."
   In an attempt to keep police and government supporters out, the rebels
have used shipping containers to block the highway leading into Gonaives.
The blockades have halted most food, fuel and medical shipments to more
than 250,000 people.
   The unrest has also affected hospitals. In St. Marc, rebels torched a
clinic. In Gonaives, a gunbattle between police and rebels left three dead
inside the hospital.
   Hospital administrator Gabriel Honorat said the wounded are being cared
for in their homes.
   "We have no medicine. It is urgent," he said.
   Medecins Sans Frontieres, or Doctors Without Borders, is sending 16 tons
of medical equipment to Haiti. The supplies consist mainly of surgical and
dressing kits for hospitals and clinics helped by the aid group, said Erwin
Vantland, a spokesman.
   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.
   The unrest has deepened as more people have taken sides in the fight.
   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.