12033: BBC: Haiti: Gonaives demonstrators demand arrests, president'sresignation (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

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

Haiti: Gonaives demonstrators demand arrests, president's resignation
BBC Monitoring Service - United Kingdom; May 14, 2002


What is happening in Gonaives is that tension has prevailed in the poor
neighbourhood of Jubile since early this morning. The residents are
demanding the departure of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide and the arrest
of Amyot Metayer and his brother, Peter Metayer. The residents accuse them
of being responsible for the acts of violence which occurred in the Jubile
neighbourhood yesterday [13 May], in which at least six people were shot and
seriously injured. Jean-Claude Noel provides more details:
[Noel - recording] Very early this morning, tension began to build in the
city of Gonaives, where tyres are being burnt everywhere. The people of
Jubile have come into the streets in order to demand the departure of Father
President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, the immediate arrest of Amyot Metayer,
also known as Cubain, and his brother, Peter Metayer, the assistant-director
of the National Port Authority of Gonaives. The people accuse them of having
been at the head of a group of people from Raboteau, who entered the area of
Jubile and Rue Liberte with the purpose of recovering a 38-caliber gun which
they say was seized by a number of people in the area.
Many people are running around, which has caused almost all activities to be
paralysed, because the demonstrators have closed several public offices, all
the schools and the communal market of the city. They have also closed the
gate to the cemetery in order to prevent the dead from being buried there.
[Passage omitted, including statements by demonstrators.]
The demonstrators say that if the authorities in question do not decide to
arrest Amyot Metayer, also known as Cubain, and his brother, Peter, they
will continue to demonstrate until President Aristide resigns. It should be
said that this demonstration took place following the intervention by a
group of people in the Raboteau area, who call themselves the Cannibal Army
and who did whatever they wanted in the Jubile area on 13 May, which caused
six people to be seriously injured by bullets, three houses to be burnt down
and several houses to be ransacked.
Source: Radio Vision 2000, Port-au-Prince, in Creole 1700 gmt 14 May 02
/¸ BBC Monitoring