19113: Lemieux: BBC: Analysis: Haiti's diverse rebels (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: JD Lemieux <lxhaiti@yahoo.com>

 BBC
2/24/04

Analysis: Haiti's diverse rebels
The insurgents who have seized power in northern Haiti and
vowed to take the capital Port-au-Prince are a disparate
lot.
The political opposition may have some contact with the
rebels but they certainly do not have any control over
them.

The main rebel leaders were once bitter enemies, and are
now united mainly in their hatred for President
Jean-Bertrand Aristide.

The insurgency began in early February in the north-western
city of Gonaives, when armed supporters of Mr Aristide
turned against the president.

As the rebellion spread, the rebels received support from
exiled soldiers who served under former strongman Raoul
Cedras in the early 1990s.

Bandwagon

The leader of the initial uprising in Gonaives is
33-year-old Butteur Metayer - a prominent member of the
"Cannibal Army", a local gang which until recently enforced
loyalty to Mr Aristide's party.

But in September he accused the president of ordering the
killing of his brother, Amyot Metayer.


Butteur Metayer took control of the group, renamed it the
Resistance Front, and on 5 February "liberated" Gonaives.
>From his headquarters in a wooden shack, Mr Metayer
declared he ruled the country's fourth-largest city and
called on Haitians to take up arms against the president.

As a number of towns and cities fell in the next few days,
others jumped on the rebels' bandwagon - notably cashiered
soldiers from Mr Cedras's army.

They crossed over from the neighbouring Dominican Republic,
where they had been living in angry exile since the former
army was dissolved in 1995.

Hit

These insurgents - some well-equipped and wearing fatigues,
others in casual dress and carrying old guns - seized
pick-up trucks and marched into eastern towns.

Calling themselves the New Army, they do not regard
themselves as rebels, but as the regular armed forces of
Haiti.


The exiles' leader is Louis Jodel Chamblain, 50, who fled
to the Dominican Republic in 1994.
A former sergeant, he is accused taking part in a number of
atrocities during the years of military rule.

He was suspected of involvement in a 1987 election
massacre, in which 34 voters were killed and a civilian-run
ballot aborted.

In 1993 in co-founded the Front for Haitian Advancement and
Progress - Fraph, which sounds like "hit" in French.


The group is accused of killing thousands of supporters of
Mr Aristide.

Plots

Mr Chamblain denies involvement in any paramilitary
activities and describes himself as a "Haitian patriot".

He returned from exile with another controversial former
soldier, Guy Philippe, 35.


Trained in the United States and Ecuador, he was a senior
security official under President Rene Preval, a civilian
elected in 1995.
Now Mr Philippe and Mr Chamblain are allies, and
celebrating their capture of Cap-Haitien, the country's
second city at the weekend.

But a few years ago they were on opposite sides, as the
Preval government hunted down members of the ousted
military junta.

Mr Philippe fled the country in 2000, accused of
involvement in a plot to overthrown Mr Preval.

BBC Americas regional analyst, James Painter, says it is
hard to see any political ideology behind the rebels, only
a desire to seize power.

He says Cap Haitien descended into anarchy after opposition
forces took it and diplomats fear that the rest of the
country could descend into similar chaos if the rebels were
to take over.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/world/americas/3515267.stm

Published: 2004/02/24 15:04:25 GMT


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