19307: haiti-info: Rebels Take Mirebalais (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Haiti Info <hainfo@starband.net>

Top Stories - Reuters
Rebels Take Crossroads Town, Near Haiti's Capital
33 minutes ago  - Reuters
By Jim Loney and Alistair Scrutton

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (Reuters) - Rebels took over a key crossroads town and
edged closer to the capital while supporters of embattled President
Jean-Bertrand Aristide mounted defenses on Friday against a bloody rebellion
that threatened to topple Haiti's government.

The stage was set for a showdown between the ragtag band of former soldiers
and gang members trying to unseat Aristide and the diminutive former priest
and onetime populist hero of Haitian democracy backed by an ill-trained,
4,000-member police force and a horde of armed gang members from the slums.

A group of rebels called the "Assaillants" (Attackers) from Haiti's Central
Plateau took control of the town of Mirebalais overnight, freeing prisoners
from the local jail, a former legislator and radio reports said.

Mirebalais is about 30 miles northeast of Port-au-Prince and sits at a
junction with access to the capital, the rebel stronghold in the north, the
coastal town of Saint Marc and the border with the Dominican Republic, where
rebel leaders lived in recent years.

Haitian National Police also dispatched officers to Les Cayes, Haiti's
third-largest city, to quell an apparent uprising, a police official said.
Les Cayes is southwest of the capital, an indication the rebellion in the
north was spreading.

Rebel leader Guy Philippe, a former police chief accused of plotting coups
who returned from exile in the Dominican Republic to lead the rebellion,
said his men had surrounded Port-au-Prince and are awaiting orders to
attack. Philippe has said he wants to celebrate his 36th birthday on Sunday
in the capital.

PROTECTING THE PALACE

Aristide has predicted a blood bath if the rebels enter the capital and
pleaded for international soldiers to head off a coup. Rebels hold Cap
Haitien, Haiti's second largest city, and Gonaives, the fourth largest.

"I would like to tell Guy Philippe and his band of criminals that
Port-au-Prince is not Gonaives or Cap Haitien," said Sony Joseph, an
Aristide loyalist surrounded by men with shotguns, pistols and rifles near
the National Palace. "They say they are coming. So we are waiting for them."


Dozens of Aristide loyalists stood in the streets early on Friday around the
palace, a stately white building surrounded by an iron fence. Shipping
containers and debris blocked streets leading to the palace grounds.

Armed gangs loyal to the president were out in large numbers overnight,
setting fire to barricades built of tires, charred car wreckage, old
appliances and rocks. Masked men questioned motorists and shouted "Five
Years," a rallying cry referring to Aristide serving out his term as
president.

The United States for the first time questioned Aristide's ability to remain
in power. Secretary of State Colin Powell (news - web sites) urged him to
"examine" whether he could govern effectively.

More than 60 people have died in the impoverished Caribbean country of 8
million people in clashes that began on Feb. 5 when a street gang began the
revolt by overrunning the western city of Gonaives.

A negotiated end to Haiti's crisis seemed far away. This week Aristide's
political foes rejected power-sharing and reiterated demands that the
president leave the palace. Aristide insisted he will serve until his term
ends in 2006.

Caribbean Community nations asked the United Nations (news - web sites) to
send an international force to restore order in Haiti, the poorest country
in the Americas with a long history of coups and dictatorships. The U.N.
Security Council said it was ready to order a peacekeeping force on
condition Haiti's government and opposition leaders reach a power-sharing
accord.

Foreigners and Haitians have been fleeing the country for days, but the
number of ways out were shrinking. American Airlines said on Thursday it had
suspended its five daily U.S. flights to Haiti.

France, Haiti's former colonial master, is holding talks in Paris with a
government delegation led by Foreign Minister Joseph Philippe Antonio.
France has been critical of Aristide in recent days, saying he bears
responsibility for the crisis.

Aristide won over Haiti's poor masses with his fiery oratory from the pulpit
in the 1980s and helped oust the Duvalier family dictatorship in a popular
uprising in 1986. He became Haiti's first freely elected leader in 1991 and
won a second term in 2000.

He has been at odds with political foes, who accuse him of human rights
abuses and corruption, over tainted 2000 parliamentary elections.
(Additional reporting by Laurent Hamida in Cap Haitien and Amy Bracken in
Port-au-Prince)