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Haiti Rebel Uprising Spreads to 9 Towns
EFL:Anti-government rebels had taken control of at least nine towns in eastern Haiti Monday, and the death toll in the violent uprising rose to at least 40, witnesses said. In the strongest challenge yet to the authority of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, armed rebels began their assault Thursday in the Gonaives, Haitiâs fourth-largest city, setting the police station on fire, driving police officers out of the town and sending government workers fleeing for safety. "We are in a situation of armed popular insurrection," said opposition politician and former army Col. Himler Rebu, who led a failed coup attempt against Lt. Gen. Prosper Avril in 1989. Success builds on success, if the government doesnât stop the spread soon, itâll reach a tipping point. The deaths were reported by the Associated Press, Red Cross official Raoul Elysee, rebel leaders Wenter Etienne and Jean-Yves Marcisse, and Haitian radio. Sounds about right, still low by international uprising standards. At the weekend, the rebels took the important port city of St. Marc, where hundreds of people looted TV sets, mattresses and sacks of flour from shipping containers. Using felled trees, burning tires and cars, residents blocked entry to several towns. Rebels blocking the road into St. Marc from Port-au-Prince, the capital 45 miles away, told Associated Press reporters Monday that if they entered the city there was no turning back to Port-au-Prince. They only would be allowed to travel deeper into rebel-held territory. Seize an area, seal it off, establish control, rinse, repeat. The main rebel group is the Gonaives Resistance Front, formerly a gang of pro-Aristide toughs who terrorized government opponents but since have turned on the Haitian leader. In Gonaives, they were joined by some former soldiers of the disbanded Haitian army. The rebels are being supported by residents who have formed neighborhood groups disgruntled by mounting poverty, corruption and political crises. In one the bloodiest clashes, 150 police tried to retake Gonaives on Saturday but left hours later after a series of gunbattles, witnesses said. At least nine people were killed, seven of them police. Crowds mutilated the corpses of three police officers, according to AP reporters. One body was dragged through the street as a man swung at it with a machete, and a woman cut off the officerâs ear. Another policeman was lynched, and residents dropped large rocks on his body. Itâs Haiti, you can never be too sure someone is going to stay dead. Meanwhile, before dawn Sunday an unidentified group of arsonists torched a two-story building in northern Cap-Haitien city that housed the studio of Radio Vision 2000, destroying it, the independent Haitian broadcaster said. Amateurs, youâre supposed to seize radio stations and broadcast your message to the masses urging them to join you. Rebels continued to rule the streets of Gonaives on Monday, witnesses said, though it was unclear how many armed militants were in the city of 200,000. St. Marc has a population of about 100,000. Calling the violence acts of terrorism, the government has vowed to regain control, but it was unclear when police planned to return. Premier Yvon Neptune, in a Sunday interview with state television, lashed out "The violence (which) is tied to a coup dâetat under way. Seems like it is. Posted by: Steve 2004-02-09 |
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