18780: (Chamberlain) Fear, panic as dark new force enters Haiti revolt (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

    By Michael Christie

    PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti, Feb 18 (Reuters) - Haiti faced fresh violence on
Wednesday after a notorious death squad leader and his band of hardened
ex-soldiers arrived to reinforce a revolt that threatens President
Jean-Bertrand Aristide.
     Government supporters flung up new street barricades and gunmen
attacked a gas station as panic and fear spread through the
poverty-stricken Caribbean nation.
     The appearance of exiled right-wing militia leader Louis Jodel
Chamblain has added a new dimension to the hitherto disorganized rebellion
against Aristide -- once viewed as the champion of Haitian democracy but
who now faces accusations of corruption and political violence.
     Many, including the government, believe the Haiti's dispirited police
face a challenge they do not have the ability, or the weapons, to overcome
without outside help.
     "Is Aristide going to negotiate his departure with the Chamblains, or
with us? That's the choice," said Charles Baker, a leader of the political
opposition that has distanced itself from the armed revolt, but still
refuses to negotiate an end to political tensions unless Aristide resigns.
     The port of Saint Marc, midway between Port-au-Prince and the city of
Gonaives, where the armed revolt began almost two weeks ago, was locked
down on Tuesday evening by militia manning barricades to defend it against
possible attack, according to a Reuters photographer.
     In downtown Port-au-Prince, gunmen drove past a gas station during the
night and fired at it until it exploded in flames. A few days ago, a
pro-government leader in the area had said gas stations owned by opposition
sympathizers would be attacked.
     Residents in that part of the city have been enraged by the murder of
the police chief of the central town of Hinche on Monday by gunmen who
returned with Chamblain from the neighboring Dominican Republic.
     Radio stations also reported a climate of fear in the northern city of
Cap-Haitien, the impoverished country's second-largest, where government
loyalists attacked suspected rebel sympathizers in the days after the
outbreak of the armed rebellion in Gonaives on Feb. 5.
     The arrival of Chamblain, a leader of the FRAPH paramilitary force
that terrorized Haitians during a military dictatorship in the early 1990s,
and of former Cap-Haitien police chief Guy Philippe, whom Aristide accused
of coup-mongering, prompted widespread condemnation.
     While making it clear that Washington would not support a government
installed through violence, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell all but
ruled out foreign police or military forces and said on Tuesday his favored
a political settlement.
     France, Haiti's former colonial master until Napoleon's army was
routed in a slave revolt 200 years ago, was noncommittal about when it
would send a peacekeeping force.
     Nevertheless, many Haitians expect some form of foreign intervention.
     The Haitian government appealed for international help in the form of
technical assistance to the 5,000-strong police force, which was set up
after Aristide disbanded the army a decade ago. He had been ousted in a
military coup shortly after beginning his first term in 2001, but restored
to office by a U.S. invasion in 1994.
     The opposition, which accuses Aristide of becoming dictatorial but
which the government dismisses as a rich mulatto elite intent on defending
the spoils of privilege, condemned what it saw as the international
community's apparent intention to again help the former parish priest
retain power.
     Baker dismissed calls to negotiate new parliamentary elections.
Haiti's political impasse dates back to parliamentary elections in 2000
that were declared flawed. The opposition boycotted presidential elections
later that year which handed Aristide a second term.
     "His monopoly on violence is throughout the country, with one
exception -- the north," said Baker. "If the international community comes
in with troops and gives him back his hold on violence, he'll steal the
election again. Who are they trying to fool?"