20773: Lyall: a month later, that week of war (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: j.david lyall <jdlyall@netscape.net>

I wrote this immediately after Aristides departure. I intended it for
submission
for publication, but didn't get any reply. So, I'm posting it now.
This was written, mind you, before we knew that Aristide was actually
kidnapped,
and that those supposed chimeres that we saw in the streets were not
really Lavalas,
they must have been put there to discredit the progressive Aristide regime.
The laboratory was really wily this time, putting thousands of hooligans
out burning and
killing and chanting 'senk ans'.
Ah well. Perhaps it would have been better to leave them to fight it out
to the death,
army du nord and army lavalas.

*******
Monday, March 1, 2004

Being a reprise of the final week of the Lavalas regime, I begin with
the Port au Prince
Carnival. The parades in la ville were an advertisement for Aristide,
with all the
floats advertising ‘senk an’, or five years. This is the signal for
Aristide being
allowed a full five years in the Presidential Palace. Nice tee shirts
were in abundance
with a circular logo of five doves around the 5 ans slogan.

The music itself was a sad reflection on a true kanaval as most of the
bands are
boycotting and in the political opposition. In response to this musical
opposition
movement the government seems to have invented a bunch of new imaginary
bands. This
is an innovation in the political game, but the role of musicians and
music in Hayti is
perhaps unique. Bands for carnival were absolutely necessary, so they
were invented. We
have been treated to them on state television for a few months now,
teenagers doing rap
moves to real bad canned kreyol rap.

All of this was happening while the armed revolt in the north and civil
rejection in
many parts of the country were happening. No news of the collapse was to
come from the
government stations but Tele Éclair started to re-broadcast a Euro news
feed on Monday.
Shortly after the French station began a report from Haiti, the news was
cut off. They
were showing footage from Gonaives, at the bus station with an armed
insurgent in the
foreground. When the commentary began a tape loop of carnival coverage
from the
previous 15 minutes was put in its place. This was very interesting.
Someone from the
government had control of the broadcast from this previously independent
station.

Ash Wednesday morning brought an end to the show. The country awoke to a
rampage of
chimere Lavalas unleashed upon the Metropole. A trip to the airport that
morning to
deliver a relative to a scheduled flight revealed roadblocks going up
before 7 am with
virtually all traffic stopped. The President had called for a
mobilization of all
militants Lavalas supposedly to combat the invasion from the north by
partisans of the
armed opposition.

This ‘mobilization’ was supposedly to resist the approaching forces of
Guy Phillipe (the
former police chief leading the armed opposition), but preventing anyone
from reaching
the airport looked to be the main effect, and possibly the intent. Many
of these armed
opposition units were formerly members of the ancien army or FRAPH, the
civilian
militia of the defacto regime of 1991-1994  which was abolished by the
USA invasion to
restore J.B Aristide to the country.

All routes into the airport were blocked with burned out car bodies and
armed men were
at the entrance to the airport road. These armed men were dressed in
black uniforms with
no markings. Reports of such an anonymous force of Lavalas shock troops
had been
heard in the past but this was the first personal meeting. They carried
M-1 rifles,
similar to the arsenal of the ancien militaire, presumably in storage
for political
emergencies. The police carry M-16s supplied by the USA during the
professionalizing mission after the restoration.

The little dream world of peaceful lavalas marches and a joyful ‘senk
an’ carnival had
gone by the wayside. The face of lavalas which we have come to know all
too well was
back in full force with barricades, burnings and brutality.

No police were to be seen on the street during Wednesdays’ takeover of
the city or
during the next four days of ‘Lavalas unleashed’. Titid had ordered his
armies of the
night out to lock down the city.

Many cars were stolen at roadblocks that Wednesday and in the days that
followed.
Reports of people being robbed of their tickets and passports and
luggage while trying
to attain the Airport are legion. Talk on the street was that women were
strip searched, young men taking slight liberties with the power that
was thrust upon them by the
President of the Republic.

The radio stations and local journalists did a fantastic job the first
few days of the
rampage by Lavalas partisans, reporting from all corners of the republic
about the
assaults by the chimere Lavalas and attacks by various insurgents on
Tribunals and
Commisariat (police stations) in various towns around the country.

Electricity was halted for most parts of Port au Prince on Wednesday and
the flash of
gunfire provided most of the lighting. Looting of businesses and burning
of houses began
to pick up speed on Thursday and Friday.  Thursday evening it was
announced that the
last flights had left that day. Whether anyone was able to reach the
airport without an
armed escort is questionable.

Helicopters began flying over the city on Thursday, promting hopes of
the arrival of the
arrival of the Marines. Rumours of the dispatching of US Naval vessels
were rife but
nothing arrived, despite reports of a fleet being sighted in the bay.
The US Marines
were reported to have escorted the UN staff to the airport in their
helicopters on
Thursday or Friday.

Friday it was reported that Aux Cayes, or Les Cayes, underwent a gros
battle, with
insurgents taking that Ville. Later it was rumored that the insurgents
were actually
disgruntled drug dealers claiming that they were cheated out of their
share of the take
by the office centrale. Mirabelais was also reported to have fallen,
with the tribunal
being looted. On Saturday Port au Prince police were dispatched to
re-take the town.
That they ventured out of their bases was amazing in itself, they did
nothing to stop
the looting and killing in Port au Prince.

The commentator of Radio Ginen, prone to effuse praises of his
excellency Jean Bertrand Aristide, on Friday gave an impassioned appeal
for the violence to stop, to sispann
kraze brize tout bagay.

Saturday most of the radio stations fell ominously silent. From a
retreat in the
mountain village of Kenscoff rumors arrived of Banks invaded and held
hostage by chimere Lavalas, supermarkets looted and many bodies in the
streets and houses invaded. Titid
called for everyone to go back to work on Monday, everything would go
back to normal
and all forgotten. Cellular telephone service remained functional
throughout all of
this, strangely, although no water was being delivered to the poor
districts, service
cancelled along with the electricity service.

The only television station broadcasting on Saturday was TNH, Television
Nationale de
Haiti. They showed endless documentaries of the rise of Jean Bertrand
Aristide. Saturday
was ominous even up in the mountains. Most local radio stations were off
the air; power
having been absent for days and no fuel available to be purchased. Radio
France
International remained, and Radio TiMoun, an arm of the Aristide
Foundation for
Democracy.

Saturday night Radio TiMoun had a call in show with Prezidan Aristide
himself.
Someone would call in a comment and the announcer then called his
excellency for a half
hour response on democracy. Gunfire echoed throughout the hills and all
over the city.

On Sunday morning the BBC and RFI announced that Aristide had left the
country in a
white plane, announcing that he resigned to spare the country more
bloodshed.

In Kenscoff the crowds came out into the street, clouds swirling about
while the young
men looted the police station, which had been abandoned that morning
after firing
warning shots throughout the night.

Looters proudly wore uniforms and riot gear, batons and lexan shields
the emblems of
their liberation. People who never talked politics were eager to
proclaim their
happiness at the departure of Lavalas. Aristide brought much suffering
they said.

After everything interesting was taken from the Commisariat, such as
uniforms and
police identification cards, the gang moved over to the mayors building,
apparently
intent on breaking in and rooting him out. They say that Marie de
Kenscoff wasn’t really elected, that the police stole the ballot box and
declared the lavalas man the mayor.
Luckily the grown ups talked the mob out of burning out the rascal and a
few men stood
guard to restrain the excitable in the crowd.

Many of these young men happily looting the police station and
attempting to burn out
the mayors’ office were undoubtedly chimere just a few days ago. It was
reported that
some local lavalas stole much furniture from the police station,
although a big screen
television and washing machine were destroyed that morning, being tossed
off the porch
and smashed with steel bars.

After the resignation TNH began showing Euro News satellite feed, paeans
to Aristide no
longer being called for. At 7 pm a news conference with the Convergence
Democratique
was broadcast, Evans Paul introducing the group. They called for a national
reconciliation, for the police to go back to work and do their job, they
called for
Electricity de Haiti to go back to work and for peace, finally.

Bon Anne is the new greeting, oui. Bonne anne.