18997: (Chamberlain) Haiti-Uprising (newer story) (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

   By PAISLEY DODDS

   CAP-HAITIEN, Feb 22 (AP) -- Rebels captured Haiti's second-largest city
with little resistance Sunday, claiming Cap-Haitien as their biggest prize
in a two-week uprising that has driven government forces from half the
country.
   The fighters shot off celebratory rounds in the air as people looted and
torched buildings, sending a pall of black smoke over the city of 500,000.
   Rebel leader Guy Philippe had vowed to take Cap-Haitien and
Port-au-Prince during Carnival festivities that extend to Tuesday night.
Philippe has told reporters there already are rebels in the capital,
waiting for the signal to attack.
   Aristide, wildly popular when he became Haiti's first freely elected
leader in 1990, has lost support since flawed legislative elections in 2000
that led international donors to freeze millions of dollars in aid.
   Opponents accuse him of breaking promises to help the poor, allowing
corruption fueled by drug-trafficking and masterminding attacks on
opponents by armed gangs -- charges the president denies.
   The rebels say they have no political agenda beyond ousting Aristide,
but the man who started the rebellion, Gonaives gang leader Buteur Metayer,
on Thursday declared himself the president of liberated Haiti. The rebels
have made no effort to install any kind of control, beyond halting a
near-riot as people rushed to get food aid in Gonaives on Thursday.
   In taking Cap-Haitien on Sunday, rebels said their force of about 200
only met resistance at the city's airport. They said eight people were
killed in fighting with militant civilians loyal to President Jean-Bertrand
Aristide.
   Aristide supporters commandeered a plane from the airport, and witnesses
said those who fled on it included seven police officers and former
Aristide lawmaker Nawoum Marcellus, whose Radio Africa had been inciting
violence against opponents.
   "We came in today and we took Cap-Haitien; tomorrow we take
Port-au-Prince" the capital, boasted Lucien Estime, a 19-year-old who
joined the popular rebellion from the hamlet of Saint Raphael, south of
Cap-Haitien.
   "Our mission is to liberate Haiti," he said.
   The victory leaves more than half of Haiti beyond control of the central
government. As that reality set in, panic began spreading Sunday in
Port-au-Prince.
   Sources close to the government told The Associated Press that several
Cabinet ministers were asking friends for places to hide in case the
capital is attacked.
   On the highway leading into Port-au-Prince from the north, Aristide
partisans set up flaming barricades Sunday to block any rebel advance.
   In Cap-Haitien, thousands shouting "Aristide fini!" -- Aristide is
finished -- marched along with about 40 rebels in commandeered cars.
   "We're free!" people shouted, ripping Aristide posters off walls.
   Some looted Marcellus' radio station. Then rebels shot up a building and
set it ablaze, to applause from the crowd.
   Reporters saw three bodies on the streets, and doctors said a
12-year-old-girl also was shot and killed. At least one rebel was wounded.
   Earlier, about 10 armed men stormed the police station and freed about
250 prisoners. The police fled and the prisoners armed themselves, witness
Ordil Jean said.
   Haiti's ill-equipped and demoralized police force of less than 4,000 has
been the main target of the insurgents, who have torched a score of police
stations since the rebellion erupted Feb. 5. At least 40 officers are among
the 70 people killed since then. In the past week, officers have been
deserting their posts with no rebels in sight.
   In Cap-Haitien, police had barricaded themselves behind their walled
compound, telling reporters they were frightened and had neither the
manpower nor the firepower to repel a rebel attack.
   As the police headquarters burned on Sunday, teenagers paraded in police
hats and body armor. Rebels swigging from beer bottles handed over the keys
of cars to residents. People hauled away weapons, typewriters, mattresses,
even doors.
   Thousands of people then converged on the port in a mad scene of
looting. People pushed away cars for which they did not have keys and
loaded goods onto hand carts. One man packed sacks of rice onto a looted
La-Z-Boy reclining chair and trundled it down the street.
   "We're all hungry," said Jean Luc, an 11-year-old who somehow had
strapped four 110-pound sacks of rice to a child's bicycle and was
precariously trying to pedal it home.
   Away from the euphoric scene around the rebels, people bolted their
doors and fearfully peered out from balconies onto streets littered with
bullet casings.
   Rebel commander Jean-Baptiste Joseph, formerly head of an association of
ex-soldiers, declared Haiti's disbanded army had liberated Cap-Haitien.
   "It's the army that's in charge here. It's the army that will free
Haiti."
   He confirmed the attackers were led by Philippe, a former police chief
who has threatened for days to attack Cap-Haitien.
   Also in town was Louis-Jodel Chamblain, co-leader of an army death squad
that killed hundreds.
   Philippe also was an officer in the army when it ousted Aristide in 1991
and instigated a reign of terror until the United States sent 20,000 troops
in 1994 to end the military dictatorship and halt an exodus of boat people
to Florida.
   The United States, which blames Aristide for the crisis, has made clear
it has no appetite for a new military adventure in Haiti.
   Instead, diplomats on Saturday presented a U.S.-backed peace plan that
was accepted by the beleaguered Aristide but resisted by the opposition
coalition Democratic Platform, which says any plan must include Aristide's
resignation.
   Sunday's rebel victory increases pressure on the political opposition to
agree to a peace plan. It has said it will respond formally by 5 p.m.
Monday.
   "This is their last chance. If they say no, they are saying no to the
international community," a senior Western diplomat said on condition of
anonymity in Port-au-Prince, where diplomats were ratcheting up the
pressure.
   Still, that diplomat conceded there seemed only a "slim possibility"
they would concede.
   "We expect the international community to understand our position ...
which will not change," said Gerard Pierre-Charles, a leading opposition
leader once allied with Aristide.
   Under the plan, Aristide would remain president with diminished powers,
sharing with political rivals a government that would organize elections.