23629 (pub) Chamberlain: Rebel leader warns government (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

   By MICHELLE FAUL

   GONAIVES, Oct 26 (AP) -- A rebel leader warned Haiti's U.S.-backed
interim government that it will face a possible revolt like the one that
led to the ouster of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide if it fails to
rebuild the storm-devastated city of Gonaives.
   Rebel leader Winter Etienne told The Associated Press that he made a
long list of demands of the government, including the construction of up to
200,000 homes, rebuilding roads, rehabilitating clogged canals and giving
each student $55 for uniforms, shoes and school fees.
   Etienne said his group told interim President Boniface Alexandre on
Tuesday "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."
   If he does not, Etienne said, "then we will do the same thing we did
before to get rid of Aristide."
   The rebels, whose three-week uprising culminated in Aristide's Feb. 29
ouster, 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 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.
   Etienne also said his men would try to help U.N. peacekeepers bring
order to the city by starting to root out bandits who have looted food aid,
but he emphasized the government must start rebuilding.
   An international effort to provide food and medical aid to survivors has
been set back by the unrest in the capital, where 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 in the exclusive interview,
using the new name for the Cannibal Army street gang that began the
February revolt against Aristide.
   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 $820,000 to clean up
Gonaives.
   Etienne said his group was forced to act by increasing insecurity and a
slow government response that has left mounds of dried mud more than a
month after Jeanne's floods and debris-filled mudslides.
   Aristide supporters in Port-au-Prince, meanwhile, called for a three-day
strike through Thursday to protest scores of arrests, and most shopkeepers
and street merchants stayed home in response.
   Two vehicles belonging to Haiti's only television company also were
attacked Tuesday afternoon in the capital, but nobody was injured, said
news director Vario Serrant.
   Elsewhere, witnesses reported some people throwing rocks and firing
shots in the air around Notre Dame Cathedral. No deaths or injuries were
reported.