21553: (Hermantin) Miami-Herald-The small, forgotten town that started a revolution in (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: leonie hermantin <lhermantin@hotmail.com>


Posted on Mon, Apr. 26, 2004




The small, forgotten town that started a revolution in Haiti

A small Haitian town's role in the ouster of former President Jean-Bertrand
Aristide has been overshadowed by later resistance in bigger cities.

BY MICHAEL A.W. OTTEY

Miami Herald


GROS-MORNE, Haiti -- When the rains come, the Marcelle River swells tenfold,
its banks grow wider apart and its waters rush across the dirt road that
passes for a highway.

It was near the Marcelle, on the edge of this small town in northern Haiti,
that a mild-mannered fourth-grade teacher led a protest against former
President Jean-Bertrand Aristide that drove out the police and torched the
only police station.

With that defiant act on Jan. 1 by Lamy Francklin, who teaches boys to read,
write and grow up to be men, Gros-Morne became the first Haitian town to rid
itself of Aristide's government in a revolt that eventually forced Aristide
to resign on Feb. 29.

''I'm just glad Aristide is gone,'' said Francklin, 32, as his pupils read
quietly in a classroom at Notre Dame Sacred Heart Elementary School. ``He
never did anything for this town. We had three days of celebration when he
left. I feel good because we won.''

Today, it's as if the revolt in Gros-Morne never happened.

LIVING IN OBSCURITY

Some 20 heart-pounding and torturous miles north of the port city of
Gonaives, Gros-Morne languishes in obscurity, overshadowed by Gonaives and
Port-de-Paix to the north.

Gros-Morne is not the kind of town that draws attention. Its people live
simple lives, growing much of what they eat, making their way on the backs
of donkeys, bathing and washing clothes in the Marcelle.

Children try to make a few dollars by heading down to the Marcelle to assist
motorists across the rushing stream. Vehicles don't always make it across,
even with the youths' professed knowledge of where it's safe to cross.
Trucks and cars swept downstream or stuck in the shifting riverbed litter
the river.

And when there's talk of recent events in Haiti, Gros-Morne rarely comes up
in conversation.

Most Haitians believe the rebellion against Aristide began Feb. 5 in
Gonaives, when an armed gang known as the Cannibal Army attacked and torched
its police station and forced policemen to flee.

That was certainly far more dramatic than what occurred in Gros-Morne, where
not one shot was fired to oust its pro-Aristide government and police, and
the residents did it without help of armed rebels.

But their timing was not the best.

ROOTS OF RESISTANCE

It happened on Jan. 1, when all attention was focused on Port-au-Prince, the
capital, as Aristide led massive celebrations marking the nation's 200th
year of independence.

On that day, Gros-Morne residents had scheduled an anti-Aristide protest,
because of long-standing complaints against his rule, to coincide with an
Aristide visit to Gonaives for the bicentennial celebrations.

Francklin said he arrived at the protest site early and watched the crowd
grow to some 4,000, an impressive sight considering there are 7,000
residents in Gros-Morne.

When word spread through town that Aristide had sent two buses to transport
his Gros-Morne supporters to Gonaives for the celebrations there, the
protesters became enraged and went to the southern entrance of town to block
the buses.

''We met the buses with signs to demand that the drivers stop,'' Francklin
said. ``Our plan was to take the buses.''

The town's mayor, a member of Aristide's Lavalas Family party, was aboard
one of the buses, which made the crowd grow more defiant.

Residents stormed the buses, and the mayor and bus drivers fled. The buses
were set on fire. The twisted steel frame of one of the buses remains along
the roadside.

Still stirred, the residents unleashed their anger on the town's police
station. Some 12 police officers inside tried to fend off the demonstrators,
but residents swarmed in and set it on fire. Police fled.

The town's mayor and other Lavalas members went into hiding.

Days later, Aristide sent a special police unit to regain control of
Gros-Morne, and Francklin was forced to go into hiding. Five were killed
during the police assault.

But continued resistance led police to withdraw. There have been no police
in Gros-Morne since January.

A WILL TO MOVE ON

Residents say they want a police force to return, but they've been doing
just fine so far without one.

A committee made up of civilians has been charged with looking after basic
needs such as providing security. The police station remains scorched and
boarded up.

And Francklin is not sore about Gonaives' false reputation as the birthplace
of the anti-Aristide revolt.

''I don't see it as a problem,'' he said, ``because the people of Gonaives
came to us and congratulated Gros-Morne for being the first.''

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