18792: (Chamberlain) Fear, panic as dark new force enters Haiti revolt (later story) (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

     By Michael Christie

     PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti, Feb 18 (Reuters) - Panic and fear gripped parts
of Haiti 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, gunmen attacked
a gas station, some schools shut down and residents of the central town of
Hinche continued to loot their burned-out police station in the power
vacuum left when a paramilitary force drove out police.
     Radio stations reported another town, Fort-Liberte in the northeast,
had fallen to the rebels.
     The appearance of exiled right-wing militia leader Louis Jodel
Chamblain and former police chief Guy Philippe has added a new dimension to
the hitherto disorganized rebellion against Aristide -- once viewed as a
champion of democracy but who now faces accusations of corruption and
political violence.
     Philippe, who Aristide once accused of coup-mongering, on Wednesday
declared himself head of the armed forces in Gonaives, with 300 former
soldiers under his command, Radio Metropole reported.
     Many, including the government, believe 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.
     In Hinche, whose police chief was gunned down alongside his bodyguard
on Monday by gunmen who returned with Chamblain from the neighboring
Dominican Republic, residents stripped the corrugated tin roof off the
charred police station.
     Police abandoned the nearby towns of Domond, Peligre and Chomonde on
the road from the capital, and schools closed.
     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 on Feb. 5.
     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.
     State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said on Wednesday both
Aristide and the opposition had to first take responsibility and overcome a
political impasse over flawed parliamentary elections in 2000.
     "The Haitians themselves can bring calm, if they take the right steps.
And to the extent they have difficulty, once they embark on that path, once
they start taking these steps, the international community has made clear
it's willing to help," he said.
     The U.N. Security Council expressed deep concern over increasing
violence and instability but left it to regional groups, such as the
Caribbean Community and the Organization of American States, to lead the
search for a solution.
     The Haitian government appealed on Tuesday 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 was ousted in
a military coup shortly after beginning his first term in 1991, but was
restored to office by a U.S. invasion in 1994.

     (Additional reporting by Amy Bracken)