19034: (Chamberlain) Haiti-Uprising (later story) (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

   By PAISLEY DODDS

   CAP-HAITIEN, Feb 22 (AP) -- Fifty U.S. Marines were headed to Haiti on
Monday to protect the American Embassy and diplomats after rebels overran
Haiti's second-largest city and began detaining supporters of President
Jean-Bertrand Aristide.
   Western diplomats, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the Marines
were requested after rebels threatened to attack the capital,
Port-au-Prince, soon.
   Two police stations outside Port-au-Prince were attacked Sunday,
independent Radio Kiskeya reported, and Aristide supporters began building
barricades to protect the city.
   The Marines are sending a Fleet Anti-Terrorist Security Team, which
usually consists of about 50 troops trained in anti-terrorism techniques, a
Defense Department official said on condition of anonymity in Washington.
The team is used to secure embassies and other facilities or ships.
   In Cap-Haitien, where rebels celebrated their biggest victory of a
bloody uprising, a rampage of looting continued Monday as supposed Aristide
militants were detained.
   "I am a brick mason, I didn't do anything wrong!" Jean-Bernard Prevalis,
33, pleaded as he was dragged away, his head bleeding. Residents alleged he
was an Aristide activist and a drug trafficker.
   "We're going to clean the city of all 'chimere,'" said rebel Dieusauver
Magustin, 26, using the Creole word "ghost" to describe pro-government
militants.
   It was not clear what would happen to those who were detained. One rebel
said they were saving them from lynching. Another, Claudy Philippe, said:
"The people show us the (chimere) houses. If they are there, we execute
them."
   The looting began Sunday, when rebel leader Guy Philippe predicted a
quick victory over Aristide's partisans, who had erected flaming barricades
on the highway into Port-au-Prince.
   "I think that in less than 15 days we will control all of Haiti,"
Philippe said at a Cap-Haitien hotel as he drank a bottle of beer.
   Sources close to the government said several Cabinet ministers in
Port-au-Prince were asking friends for places to hide should the capital be
attacked by anti-government protesters.
   On Monday, France urged its citizens to leave Haiti. "We are convinced
that all those who have no purpose for being there should not stay," said
Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin on RMC-Info radio. He did not
indicate if France had evacuation plans.
   There are about 30,000 foreigners in Haiti, including about 20,000
Americans, 2,000 French and 1,000 Canadians.
   The political opposition has said it will respond by 5 p.m. Monday to a
U.S.-backed peace plan that calls for Aristide to remain president while
sharing some power with rivals until new elections are organized.
   The Red Cross, meanwhile, is trying urgently to avert a collapse of
medical care in Haiti, a senior official said Monday.
   "The situation is unraveling very quickly, probably more quickly than
anybody would have thought," said Yves Giovannoni, head of operations for
Latin America and the Caribbean at the International Committee of the Red
Cross.'
   ICRC staff are reporting 30-50 people a day injured by the fighting.
   After protesters drove police from Cap-Haitien, a city of 500,000 on
Haiti's north coast, thousands of people went on a looting spree.
   The takeover of Cap-Haitien by about 200 fighters was the most
significant advance by Aristide's opponents since the uprising began Feb 5.
At least 15 people died in Sunday's fighting.
   More than 70 people have been killed since the start of the rebellion.
   The two-pronged rebel assault quickly engulfed key points in
Cap-Haitien. The police station was burned, then looted, as was a
pro-Aristide radio station. Thousands of people rushed to the port and
carted off goods.
   "We're all hungry," said Jean Luc, 11, who strapped four huge sacks of
rice to his bicycle and was trying to pedal it home.
   Residents also defaced posters of Aristide, who was wildly popular when
he became Haiti's first freely elected leader in 1990 but lost support
after flawed legislative elections in 2000 led international donors to
freeze millions of dollars in aid.
   Opponents accuse him of failing to help those in need in the Western
hemisphere's poorest country, allowing corruption and masterminding attacks
on opponents by armed gangs. Aristide denies the charges.
   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.
   Rebels have driven government forces from half the country. As
Cap-Haitien stood on the brink of falling, police were barricaded in their
posts, saying they lacked the personnel and firepower to fend off the
insurgents.
   Many people expressed joy at the rebel victory.
   "The people are happy. Finally we're free from terror," said Fifi Jean,
30, as she stood in front of the blazing police headquarters, which was
burned after the police fled amid the rebel assault. As night fell, fires
broke out in the homes of some Aristide supporters in Cap-Haitien.
   As the rebel leader predicted victory, his fighters, clad in camouflage
uniforms and black flak jackets, sat by the hotel pool in lounge chairs,
drinking beer and eating plates of goat, chicken, rice and beans.
   Philippe said he wanted to see Aristide thrown in jail and put on trial,
although he did not know what charges the president would face, saying it
would be up to Haitian judges.
   The rebel leader was an officer in the army when it ousted Aristide in
1991 and instigated a reign of terror that ended in 1994 when the United
States sent 20,000 troops to end the military dictatorship and restore the
president to power.
   In taking Cap-Haitien, rebels said their force only met resistance at
the airport, where Philippe said eight civilians loyal to Aristide were
killed in a gunbattle. Seven other bodies were seen Sunday in Cap-Haitien.
   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," boasted Lucien Estime, a 19-year-old who joined the
rebellion from the hamlet of Saint Raphael, south of Cap-Haitien. "Our
mission is to liberate Haiti."
   The United States blames Aristide for the crisis and has said it does
not want to send troops to restore order.
   The opposition coalition Democratic Platform insists any plan must
include Aristide's resignation.
   Aristide accepted the plan, but indicated he would not negotiate with
the soldiers who had ousted him in 1991.