23849: Hermantin (News) -Rebellion leader in Haiti held in Miami (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: leonie hermantin <lhermantin@hotmail.com>

Posted on Wed, Dec. 08, 2004




U.S. CUSTODY


Rebellion leader in Haiti held in Miami

Butteur Metayer, a leader of the rebellion against Haitian President
Jean-Bertrand Aristide, is being held in immigration detention in Miami.

BY JACQUELINE CHARLES

jcharles@herald.com


A top Haitian rebel leader who once declared himself president of Haiti's
fourth-largest city after leading the violent rebellion that help toppled
former Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide is being held by federal
immigration authorities in Miami.

Butteur Metayer was taken into custody by U.S. Department of Homeland
Security's Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, Nina Pruneda, a
spokeswoman for the agency, said Tuesday.

Pruneda declined to elaborate on Butteur's detention or reports that he was
picked up because he overstayed his time allowed outside of the United
States. He lived in the United States before traveling to Haiti following
the death of his brother, a pro-Aristide gang leader who turned against the
president.

''His case is in active litigation,'' Pruneda said. ``He will be afforded
the opportunity of due process.''

Earlier this year, Butteur Metayer led a ragtag army of some of Aristide's
most feared foes after he and other gang leaders accused Arisitide of
ordering Amiot Metayer's death. Amiot Metayer was once the head of the
Cannibal Army, a pro-Aristide gang known as chimres that later turned on the
president.

The group soon changed its name to the Artibonite Resistance Front and,
under Butteur Metayer, led a three-week insurgency against Aristide that
began with the seizure of Gonaives, Haiti's fourth-largest city, on Feb. 5.
The group then captured Cap-Haitien, Haiti's second-largest city, before
Aristide finally resigned on Feb. 29.

That's when Metayer, known to walk around with a machete on his head,
declared himself president of Gonaives. Later, he and other rebel leaders
were declared ''freedom fighters'' by interim Haitian Prime Minster Gerard
Latortue, sparking an outcry.


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