23331: (Chamberlain) Armed rebels in Gonaives (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

   By PAISLEY DODDS

   GONAIVES, Sept 29 (AP) -- Scores of armed rebels approached Gonaives and
some sneaked into the city despite opposition from U.N. peacekeepers,
ratcheting up more tension in the city of a quarter million devastated by
floods more than a week ago.
   Barefooted survivors still walk through sewage and mud. Gangsters are
looting food aid. Widespread damage to crops and livestock has experts
fearing a famine.
   Radio Vision 2000 reported Wednesday that about 150 heavily armed rebels
in trucks tried to enter the city in northwest Haiti but turned around when
ordered to by U.N. peacekeepers guarding the entrance, which has been a
flashpoint for looting.
   But an AP reporter encountered about 20 fatigue-clad rebels inside the
city as darkness fell. They were in front of the main international food
aid warehouse belonging to CARE and confronting U.N. troops. The only
visible weapons the rebels had were a rifle, a pistol and a knife.
   The rebels were telling the peacekeepers they had come to provide
security and patrol the city. The peacekeepers, who have complained about
lack of help from Haiti's demoralized police force, said they would welcome
the help but that the rebels would have to give up their guns.
   The confrontation occurred soon after people looted a food warehouse,
according to Haitian radio reports. CARE, an international humanitarian
organization, said it was not its warehouse, as some had reported. Anne
Poulsen of the U.N. World Food Program, which is providing most food in
Gonaives, said it was believed to be a government warehouse.
   Agriculture Minister Phillipe Mathieu told reporters Tuesday that "We
believe the lootings are planned by gangs."
   At the warehouse, one peacekeeper remonstrated the rebels: "We were sent
here (to Haiti) because you are not protecting people."
   Gonaives' Cannibal Army street gang rose up against the government of
President Jean-Bertrand Aristide in February, sparking a rebellion that
quickly was joined by soldiers from the former Haitian army that Aristide
disbanded in 1995. The rebels overran half the country in three weeks and
Aristide fled his Caribbean country -- under pressure with the United
States and France demanding his resignation and refusing to send troops to
his aid.
   U.S. troops arrived as he departed but did little to disarm the rebels,
who are demanding the reinstatement of the army and have friendly relations
with the U.S.-installed interim government.
   Rebels now have formed a political party which Aristide supporters --
including a vast majority of Haiti's impoverished peasants and slum
dwellers -- say is aimed at returning power in the country to the hands of
a lighter skinned elite that has become wealthy on the backs of Haiti's
poor.
   Aristide became Haiti's first freely elected president in 1990, chosen
for his fiery rhetoric as a slum priest that fueled a revolution and ended
the 28-year Duvalier family dictatorship. He was ousted within months by
the army, returned by a U.S. invasion in 1994, was forced to step down by
U.S. pressure and a constitutional clause forbidding two-term presidencies,
and was re-elected in 2000.
   Cecile Pima, 39, is a farmer in the cut-off Dubedou community of
storm-devastated fields about 45 minutes drive and an hour's walk from
Gonaives.
   She worried that the new government "doesn't even know we exist." No one
has come to help them since the storm hit 11 days ago and their attempts to
get food aid in Gonaives failed after a day of waiting while people fought
U.N. troops and each other. Troops have several times fired into the air
and used smoke grenades to stop rioting at food distributions.
   The storm ravaged an estimated 24,700 acres of the most fertile land in
Haiti, with mud covering the area that produces up to 40 percent of the
bananas, beans and sweet potatoes consumed in the country, according to
agronomist Jean-Andre Victor.
   "If Haitian-international cooperation is slow to respond (to farmers'
needs), there is risk of famine in those regions," Victor warned.
   Hundreds remain hungry in Gonaives nearly two weeks after Jeanne struck.
Rescuers recovered dozens more bodies on Wednesday, raising the toll to at
least 1,554 dead. Another 904 people are missing and many must be presumed
dead -- washed out to sea or buried in debris.
   Some 300,000 people were made homeless by the storm, 200,000 of them in
Gonaives, where survivors live on sidewalks and the rooftops of mud-logged
homes.
   The United Nations is launching an appeal for $30 million in emergency
aid for Haiti, UNICEF executive director Carol Bellamy said Wednesday after
touring Gonaives in knee-high boots.
   It was not known late Wednesday how the confrontation at the CARE
warehouse ended. The reporter had to leave because the city is dangerous at
night -- roamed by armed street gangs whom police say are breaking into
people's homes. One makeshift clinic has reported treating at least 30
people for gunshot wounds sustained in food fights.