23623: Benodin: AP Interview: Rebel leader says Haiti's government must meet demands for storm-ravaged city or faced armed revolt (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Robert Benodin <r.benodin@worldnet.att.net>

AP Interview: Rebel leader says Haiti's government must meet demands for
storm-ravaged city or faced armed revolt
AP Photos PAP101-105
By MICHELLE FAUL
Associated Press Writer
GONAIVES, Haiti (AP) -- Rebel leader Winter Etienne said Tuesday that
Haiti's U.S.-backed interim government must meet demands to rebuild the
storm-devastated city of Gonaives or resign -- and if not, the rebels will
take up arms and the government will face another revolt.
   Etienne also told The Associated Press in an exclusive interview that his
men would immediately start to root out bandits in the city, and had told
U.N. peacekeepers led by Argentines here that "we are ready to work with
them to eradicate the bandits."
   The rebels, whose rebellion led up to the February ouster of President
Jean-Bertrand Aristide, have made demands before and backed down -- such as
their recent threat to descend on the capital of Port-au-Prince to end
violence that has claimed at least 61 lives in less than a month.
   But the latest move appears part of a strategy to increase pressure on a
government confronting turmoil from its inception and that has been made
fragile by the devastation last month from Tropical Storm Jeanne. It killed
some 1,900 people, left 900 missing and presumed dead, and 200,000 others
homeless in Haiti's third-largest city of Gonaives.
   An international effort to provide food and medical aid to survivors has
been set back by the unrest in Port-au-Prince, where scores of tons of aid
have been delayed at the port. U.N. peacekeepers were posted at the port
this week to help ensure the flow of aid.
   "The Resistance Front Artibonite has decided to demand that the
government rebuild Gonaives," Etienne said, using the new name for the
Cannibal Army street gang that began the rebellion leading up to Aristide's
Feb. 29 ouster.
   No immediate comment was available from peacekeepers or the government,
installed with support from U.S. Marines, who arrived the day Aristide left.
   Finance Minster Henri Bazin last week promised the government would spend
30 million gourdes (US$820,000) to clean up Gonaives.
   Etienne said his group was forced to act by increasing insecurity as
gangsters and ordinary people loot aid, and by a slow government response
that has left mounds of dried mud more than a month after Jeanne's floods
and debris-filled mudslides.
   Angry citizens shouted abuse at Prime Minister Gerard Latortue when he
visited Gonaives two weeks ago, accusing his government of doing nothing.
   Etienne made a long list of demands, including the construction of up to
200,000 homes, rebuilding roads, rehabilitating blocked canals filled with
contaminated water and sewage, and giving each student 2,000 gourdes (US$55)
for uniforms, shoes, and school fees.
   Etienne said his group told interim President Boniface Alexandre on
Tuesday morning "that if he cannot respond positively, clearly and precisely
to all the demands of the community of Gonaives, that he must turn over
power to someone else who can."
   Asked what would happen if he did not, he said "then we will do the same
thing we did before to get rid of Aristide."
   It was unclear how the message was transmitted to Alexandre, and how many
fighters Etienne would have on his side.
   During the interview, two young men shouted from the street to a balcony
where Etienne was seated. One said: "You do not have the right to name us in
this honest act -- looting, pillaging, theft from aid trucks!"
   Neighbors identified them only as Cannibal Army members Renaud and
Jacques and accused them of looting and breaking into homes. The scene
suggested a rift within Etienne's group between those who want to want to
loot and those who are against it. Etienne's threat to root out bandits
could preview an internal struggle.
   A rift has also developed in Aristide's Lavalas Family party between
those who insist he must return from exile in South Africa and those who say
others should take his place.
   The international community has pledged more than US$1 billion to try to
put on the road to democracy a nation of 8 million impoverished by decades
of misrule.
   On Tuesday, Aristide supporters in the capital called for a three-day
strike through Thursday to protest scores of arrests amid the violence, and
most shopkeepers and street merchants closed in response.
   Witnesses reported some people throwing rocks and firing shots in the air
around Notre Dame Cathedral, near the pro-Aristide slum of Bel Air. But no
deaths or injuries were reported, while peacekeepers and police patrolled
the streets.
   (maf-pp-on-mn/imj)
   (Copyright 2004 by The Associated Press.  All Rights Reserved.)
APTV-10-26-04 1743EDT