19903: (Chamberlain) Haiti-Searching for Justice (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

   By PAISLEY DODDS

   PETIT-GOAVE, March 5 (AP) -- It took an armed posse five days to track
down Ti Roro. Once they did, Roro was beaten with sticks, taken to the
morgue to identify his alleged victims, ringed with gasoline-soaked tires
and burned alive.
   With no police, no courts and no law, communities are taking justice
into their own hands, hunting down former militants of President
Jean-Bertrand Aristide who they say made their lives a living hell.
   "It took him more than an hour to die, but as he was burning, he
admitted to all of the 15 people he killed in the last year," said Joubert
Muraille, 41, who witnessed Wednesday's killing but said he did not
participate. "He deserved it 1,000 times."
   This small colonial city 40 miles west of the capital has been bitterly
divided since Aristide won his second election victory in 2000 and
pro-government militias began terrorizing opposition members.
   The climate changed quickly, though, when Aristide fled Sunday. Police
vanished, government officials fled, court offices bolted shut and
pro-Aristide militias went on the run from armed posses stepping in as
ragtag sheriffs.
   The posses are responsible only for rounding up the Aristide militants.
They say they don't kill anyone.
   That's left to the mercy of the population.
   "We're in control of the city, and we don't want to kill anyone," said
Daddy Ostine, 24, holding a machine gun in a group of armed men. "But these
people have been abused for years. Once there is stability we will disarm."
   Roland Lysias said it was Ti Roro who killed his 21-year-old son,
Junior, two months ago because he had been a known member of an opposition
group. He said Roro cut off his son's feet, severed his hands, gouged out
his eyeballs and set him ablaze.
   Lysias said he didn't take part in Roro's killing, but asked the
community for justice.
   "We had to treat evil with evil," said Lysias, 72, his face withered,
hands shaking. "If there was another way to bring about justice, I would
accept that. But right now there is no other way. This is the only justice
we can find right now."
   Witnesses to the killing said the crowd cheered as Roro was set afire.
After he was dead, family members of alleged victims threw rocks at his
charred corpse. The town's residents quickly buried the body across the
street from the hospital, next to a heap of foul trash.
   Another young man accused of being a pro-Aristide militant and rapist
was also beaten by townspeople. On Thursday, he lay on a steel gurney,
separate from the other hospital patients. He was hooked up to an IV and
unable to talk. His condition appeared serious.
   Doctors said most of the dozen patients in the hospital were victims of
gunbattles that erupted Sunday after news spread of Aristide's departure.
Seven bodies were in the morgue, including a young woman caught in
crossfire.
   "There are only two sides now -- for and against Aristide," Lysias said.
   It's unclear how soon the town will get police or new government
officials.
   International peacekeepers led by the United States, France and Canada
are patrolling the capital, Port-au-Prince, and forces are doing
assessments in other areas of the country, including the second-largest
city of Cap-Haitien and Gonaives, where a street gang launched a bloody and
popular uprising nearly a month ago that helped drive Aristide from power.
   So far, peacekeepers have stayed out of the small towns, even though
they are just as lawless as many of the larger cities.
   "We haven't slept because we need to keep the city safe," said Junior
Lionel, 33, clasping his World War II-era M-1 rifle. "We need help from the
Americans and peacekeepers, but they can't just come in here and abandon us
like they did the last time."
   U.S.-led troops helped restore Aristide to power in 1994, four years
after he was ousted as Haiti's first freely elected president. Peacekeepers
struggled to keep the peace, then, too.
   The bodies are also piling up this time, especially in towns where
police and government officials have fled.
   In Gressier, just east of Petit-Goave, four bodies were dumped on the
side of the road Thursday. Three had their hands tied, and all had been
shot in the head.
   Another four bodies were found Wednesday, near Carrefour. All had their
hands tied, and all had been shot in the head.
   "What we're living in is a time of despair," said Sebien Saint-Fils, 56.
   For years, Petit-Goave had been a flashpoint of anti-government
tensions. One pro-Aristide group ambushed and hacked to death journalist
Brignol Lindor in 2001, days after opposition members spoke on his radio
talk show. Ten Aristide partisans were charged with murder but only two
have been found.
   "It's a big problem," said street vendor Luta Charles, 57. "If we have a
situation, we're left almost like animals by ourselves. Justice is
something they sell in a measuring cup."