23361: Intervision2000: Arisitide backers threaten beheadings of foreigners in Haiti (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: InterVision2000 <info@intervision2000.com>


Arisitide backers threaten beheadings of foreigners in Haiti
Associated Press - 12:25 AM EDT Oct 07

Three police officers were decapitated last week when Aristide supporters
stepped up protests demanding his return from exile in South Africa and
launched Operation Baghdad. On Tuesday, a dozen young men and children in
Bel Air shot a man and tried unsuccessfully to hack off his head, accusing
him of spying for rebels who overthrew Aristide, said Ninger Napoleon, a
reporter for Radio Antilles who watched the scene.

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) - Enraged supporters of ousted Haitian president
Jean-Bertrand Aristide armed themselves with machetes, guns, rocks and
bottles and roamed a downtown slum in the capital, threatening to behead
foreigners after UN troops and Haitian police arrested dozens of people
Wednesday.

As gunfire crackled and two helicopters roared overhead, UN troops in
armoured personnel carriers moved into the Bel Air slum, trying to put down
a campaign by Aristide loyalists who have carried out a number of gory
beheadings in imitation of Iraqi insurgents.

Wednesday morning, the headless body of a man lay in the street in La
Salines, a seaside slum facing Port-au-Prince port. A convoy of UN troops
drove around the body. No head was in sight.

Three police officers were decapitated last week when Aristide supporters
stepped up protests demanding his return from exile in South Africa and
launched Operation Baghdad.

One angry man in Bel Air on Wednesday thrust a gun into the face of a
reporter, yelled expletives against President George W. Bush and UN troops,
then screamed: "We are going to kidnap some Americans and cut off their
heads."

Protesters also have been demanding an end to "the invasion" - referring to
U.S. marines who flew in the day Aristide left in February and U.N. troops
who replaced them in June.

At least 19 people have been killed in the violence in Port-au-Prince, which
relief workers said could paralyse attempts to feed tens of thousands of
hungry survivors in the northwestern port city Gonaives, which was
devastated by floods from tropical storm Jeanne last month.

At least 46 people have been treated for gunshot wounds since Friday at
Port-au-Prince General Hospital, said a clerk who didn't want her name used.
She said the hospital usually treats one or two wounded people a day.

Aristide loyalists blocked streets throughout Bel Air with torched cars and
other debris, just blocks from the National Palace. UN troops and Haitian
police surrounded the district Wednesday, searching cars and people at
checkpoints, while making arrests in the slum.

Police spokeswoman Jesse Coicou said 75 people were detained for questioning
during the sweep of Bel Air but officials said no weapons were found.

"They were all bandits...They had been firing at police," police director
Renan Etienne said.

UN spokesman Toussaint Kongo-Doudou said it appeared weapons had been
hidden.

Troops and police withdrew from Bel Air late Wednesday morning, leaving
deserted streets to men and boys armed with machetes, guns, knives, bottles
and stones. They lit bonfires to block roads with torched cars, tires,
mattresses and furniture.

"We demand Aristide's return," they said.

Interim prime minister Gerard Latortue - whom protesters have also
threatened to behead - accused pro-Aristide street gangs of instigating the
violence. Aristide supporters said the police started it by firing at
unarmed protesters.

On Tuesday, a dozen young men and children in Bel Air shot a man and tried
unsuccessfully to hack off his head, accusing him of spying for rebels who
overthrew Aristide, said Ninger Napoleon, a reporter for Radio Antilles who
watched the scene.

Rebel commander Ravix Remissainthe told Radio Metropole the man was an
ex-soldier.

Aid workers said the violence threatened to handicap flood-relief efforts
aimed at Gonaives.

Anne Poulsen of the UN World Food Program said the unrest had scared away
workers from the capital's port, where 135 containers with 2,200 tonnes of
food were stuck.

As the port remained closed, Poulsen said the World Food Program had asked
UN troops to provide security "so we don't break the pipeline of aid going
into Gonaives."

Some 750 of the 3,000 UN troops in Haiti are tied up protecting relief
supplies and food distribution to storm victims in Gonaives.

At least 1,870 were killed by tropical storm Jeanne, which drenched
northwestern Haiti for 30 hours beginning Sept. 17. Some 884 people were
reported missing, most presumed dead.

In Gonaives, food aid has failed to reach thousands who are too weak, sick
or old to stand in rowdy food lines. More than 100,000 remain hungry, the
International Federation of Red Crescent and Red Cross Societies said.

Saint Amise Dorcelue said she has tried and failed four times to obtain food
for herself and her five boys. Six-months pregnant, Dorcelue was left
penniless after her husband died trying to save his fishing boat during
Jeanne.

"I'm hungry, too, but I can't fight or my baby might get hurt," the barefoot
30-year-old said, patting her stomach.

Gonaives had never recovered from a February rebellion that began when a
street gang torched government buildings, released jailed criminals and
forced police to flee. Dozens of people were killed.

Organization of American States Secretary General Miguel Angel Rodriguez
made a one-hour visit to Gonaives on Wednesday, touring a clinic and meeting
with aid workers and UN troops.

"The most important thing is to keep the help coming with food and the
health situation," he said after arriving by helicopter with Haitian
Interior Minister Herard Abraham.

Rodriguez said the OAS and the World Bank will soon begin a $30-million US
environmental project to help ease flooding. More than 98 per cent of Haiti
is deforested - because people chop trees for charcoal - leaving denuded
hills that water easily runs off.

After his Gonaives visit, Rodriguez left for the capital to meet with
Latortue.