19026: (Hermantin)Sun-Sentinel-Band of 200 rebels takes Haiti's 2nd-largest city (fwd)Jane Regan story

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: leonie hermantin <lhermantin@hotmail.com>

Band of 200 rebels takes Haiti's 2nd-largest city

By Jane Regan
Special Correspondent
Posted February 23 2004

Cap-Haitien, Haiti · Rebel commandos captured Haiti's second-largest city on
Sunday, jeopardizing peace negotiations aimed at ending a bloody rebellion
that threatens to topple the government of embattled President Jean-Bertrand
Aristide.

The taking of this northern Haitian town by anti-Aristide militants follows
similar rebel advances in at least a dozen other cities since Feb. 5,
leaving about one-third of the country under rebel control as police and
government officials have abandoned their posts and fled for safety.

Revelers fired celebratory rounds into the air, and people looted and
torched buildings as the rebels seized Cap-Haïtien, the biggest prize
claimed in the escalating rebellion. Some of the rebels boasted that their
next target would be the capital, Port-au-Prince, which remains under the
control of police and militants loyal to Aristide.

"Our next stop is Port-au-Prince," rebel leader Louis-Jodel Chamblain said
in an interview while loading bullets into a firearm during the assault.
"Tell St. Marc we are on our way, too," he added, referring to one of the
towns still controlled by the police and pro-government armed militants.

Rebels said their heavily armed force, named the Haitian National
Revolutionary Liberation Front, was about 200 strong and had met little
resistance except at the airport. It took just a few hours for the force to
push from the southern outskirts of the city into the center.

Thousands of people shouting "Down with Aristide!" marched with a convoy of
about 50 heavily armed rebels after the assault.

At least four people died in the assault, although the circumstances of
their deaths were unclear. Rebels said they killed resisters at the airport,
but those reports could not be confirmed late Sunday night.

A man thought to be a local firefighter was reported killed in the attack.
The Associated Press reported a 12-year-old girl also died from gunshot
wounds. At least one man, an Aristide supporter, was killed when he was
attacked by machete-wielding men, witnesses said.

As the rebels were approaching town, a group of armed men led by well-known
Aristide supporter Richard Estimable rushed into the airport and
commandeered a Tropical Airlines airplane just as it was about to load
passengers for Haiti's capital, Port-au-Prince, witnesses reported.

"I saw AK-47s and T-65s," said Jacques Jeannot, 37, the local manager for
the airlines who lives in Cap-Haïtien as well as Fort Lauderdale. "They were
wearing black except for Richard Estimable, ... who was wearing camouflage."

Jeannot said the men forced their way onto the plane and flew to the
capital, where they disembarked and left without any problems.

The Cap-Haïtien airport remained closed on Sunday.

None of the police officers whom the rebels came to oust was killed in the
fighting.

Chamblain said that all the police SWAT team members had fled.

"All 26 of them," he said, smiling.

The police stations and jails were empty by the time the rebels arrived. A
group of armed men opened the cells and let about 250 prisoners out, one of
the former prisoners told the South Florida Sun-Sentinel.

"Long live the rebellion! Long live Gonaïves!" said the man, who would only
give his first name, Pierre, before rushing off to join rebels who pillaged
the police station and the jail's food depot. He was referring to the first
city that fell to armed rebels when the uprising began Feb. 5.

With Chamblain in the lead, the rebels entered Cap-Haïtien about 11 a.m. in
a convoy of police and state utility vehicles they had taken during their
previous attacks on police stations around the country.

Only a day earlier, foreign diplomats met with Aristide and the opposition
group leaders in an attempt to negotiate a peaceful end to the crisis. But
the Haitian National Revolutionary Liberation Front was not invited.

"This is a great victory," rebel leader Guy Philippe said in an interview
Sunday night. Philippe, who is leading the rebellion with Chamblain, arrived
on Sunday with a convoy of three truckloads of armed men who came to
reinforce the invading force.

"It's another victory for the Haitian people against the dictatorship of
President Jean-Bertrand Aristide," said Philippe, a former military leader
who has been living in exile since fleeing Haiti in the 1990s. "The people
cheered us when our men came in. Aristide should know that."

As the rebels arrived in Cap-Haïtien, they fired their automatic weapons at
four police buildings, smashing the windows. After searching the rooms,
soldiers told people "Burn! Burn it all!"

"We said we would come, and we did!" said Daniel Marcel, 64. Once a member
of Haiti's army, Marcel has spent the past 10 years as a supermarket
security guard. He quit and joined the rebellion a few weeks ago.

"Take everything you want!" Marcel shouted as he fired his gun in the air.

Joel Pierre, 18, wearing a police helmet and carrying an M-14, said he
joined the rebellion two weeks ago.

"I'm from Savanette!" he shouted over the automatic weapons fire around him.
"I want my country to be normal like any other country!"

As the police station and other police buildings went up in flames, more
people poured into the streets. Some took part in the looting; others
offered the rebels water and other drinks.

"Good riddance!" said Euchariste Lamothe, 43, as she watched the North
Department police station burn. She blamed many of Haiti's economic,
political and societal problems on Aristide and said she hoped the rebels
would march to the capital and overthrow the president.

As the convoy moved through the town, hundreds of people ransacked
businesses, the airport and depots at the port. Teenagers paraded in police
hats and body armor while rebels handed over keys of cars to residents and
drank beer. People hefted away weapons, typewriters, mattresses, even doors.

"About 15,000 sacks of rice were taken from the port," said Walter
Bussenius, a friend of the woman whose stocks were stolen.

Rebel commander Jean-Baptiste Joseph, formerly head of an association of
ex-soldiers from Haiti's disbanded army, declared: "It's the army that's in
charge here. It's the army that will free Haiti."

Haiti's army ousted Aristide eight months after his 1991 inauguration and
began a reign of terror until the United States sent 20,000 troops in 1994
to end the military dictatorship, restore Aristide and halt an exodus of
boat people to the shores of Florida.

The latest attack puts added pressure on politicians negotiating a
U.S.-backed international peace plan that would leave Aristide as president
but force him to share power with his political rivals. Aristide's political
opponents, like the armed rebels, want the president to step down.

The opposition groups met with foreign envoys Saturday and promised to
deliver a formal response to the peace proposal by 5 p.m. today. The armed
groups were not represented in the talks, and the diplomatic delegation left
Haiti Saturday night.

Information from The Associated Press was used to supplement this article.

PHOTO GALLERY: Turmoil in Haiti





Copyright © 2004, South Florida Sun-Sentinel

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