21555: Lemieux: Miami Herald: The small, forgotten town that started a revolution in Haiti (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: JD Lemieux <lxhaiti@yahoo.com>

 Miami Herald
 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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© 2004 The Miami Herald and wire service sources.
All Rights Reserved.
http://www.thestate.com




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