19049: Esser: Residents rampage as Aristide militants in Port-au-Prince arm against assault (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: D. Esser torx@joimail.com

Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
Residents rampage as Aristide militants in Port-au-Prince arm against
assault
03:40 PM EST Feb 23



CAP-HAITIEN, Haiti (CP) - Residents went on a rampage of reprisals
and looting Monday, the day after rebels overran Haiti's
second-largest city, and loyalists of President Jean-Bertrand
Aristide armed themselves and set up flaming barricades against the
guerrillas' threat to attack Port-au-Prince next.

Fifty U.S. marines were on their way to Haiti's capital to secure the
U.S. Embassy and its staff, western diplomats and a Defence
Department official said on condition of anonymity.

Canadian officials said Monday that visa services in Haiti would be
maintained as long as the situation permits and a temporary visa
office has been set up in the Canadian Embassy in Santo Domingo in
neighbouring Dominican Republic.

Minister of Citizenship and Immigration Judy Sgro also said in a news
release Monday that "flexible consideration" will be given to people
from Haiti seeking to extend their stay in Canada. Immigration
officers at ports of entry will adopt a flexible approach when
dealing with Haitian clients in view of the situation, she added.

Canadians have been urged not to travel to Haiti and those who are
there are being advised to leave while commercial means are available.

There were two attacks Sunday on police stations outside
Port-au-Prince that left one passerby dead, independent Radio Kiskeya
reported.

Radio stations reported a homemade bomb exploded overnight at
Carnival celebrations at the Champs de Mars - Port-au-Prince's
central plaza in front of the presidential National Palace - but a
witness said it was a malfunction by an aging transformer that
brought down a wire, electrocuting a teenage girl.

The takeover of Cap-Haitien by about 200 fighters was the most
significant advance by Aristide's opponents since the uprising began
Feb 5. More than 70 people have been killed, including 17 on Sunday.

There were occasional bursts of gunfire Monday in Cap-Haitien, a city
of 500,000 on Haiti's north coast. Rebels celebrated and detained
supposed Aristide militants.

"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."

Police in Cap-Haitien remained barricaded in their posts, saying they
lacked the means and the manpower to fight off the insurgents. Some
hard-core Aristide militants roamed the streets and terrorized the
president's opponents until the rebels moved in.

Thousands demonstrated in favour of the rebellion, chanting
"Aristide, get out!" and "Goodbye, Aristide."

Looters stole 800 tonnes of food at the UN World Food Program
warehouse, according to the agency's Andrea Bagnoli, and people
torched the home of pro-Aristide Mayor Wilmar Innocent.

Rebel leader Guy Philippe predicted a quick victory.

"I think that in less than 15 days we will control all of Haiti," he
said at a Cap-Haitien hotel as he drank a bottle of beer.

Philippe said nothing could be done to stop the looting and blamed
Aristide's government for leaving most of Haiti's eight million
people hungry and desperate.

The rebels also cut cellular telephone service in the city, saying
they wanted no communication with Port-au-Prince.

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. The United
States did the same Thursday.

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.

Prime Minister Yvon Neptune said the international community must
help save Haiti from "terrorists that are sowing violence and death,"
but he did not go so far as to ask for peacekeepers.

The Red Cross, meanwhile, was trying to avert a collapse of medical
care in Haiti, a senior official said Monday.

"The situation is unravelling 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, speaking in Geneva. ICRC staff are
reporting 30 to 50 people a day injured by the fighting.

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.

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 gun battle. 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 political opposition in Haiti has said it will respond formally
by 5 p.m. Monday to a U.S.-backed peace plan presented Saturday by
diplomats, including Canadian cabinet minister Denis Coderre, in
which Aristide would remain president with diminished powers, sharing
with political rivals a government that would organize elections.

It was accepted by the beleaguered Aristide but resisted by the
opposition coalition Democratic Platform, which says any plan must
include Aristide's resignation.

© The Canadian Press, 2004
.