| Posted on Sat, Feb. 07, 2004 |
Rebels attack cops sent to Gonaives BY MICHAEL A.W. OTTEY Knight Ridder Newspapers GONAIVES, Haiti - (KRT) - Tactical police forces were unable to regain control Saturday of this seaport city from armed opponents of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. A firefight left several people dead and wounded. The exact number could not be confirmed in the ensuing chaos, but the Red Cross reported at least four casualties. Rebel forces reported killing 14 police officers and 11 other people. Other sources put the number of dead officers at between two and nine. It was the worst day of clashes since a political crisis erupted in September over disputed May 2000 legislative elections. Opposition groups have called for Aristide to step down and call new elections. Aristide has refused to do so before his term ends in 2006. Rebel forces took control of the city of 200,000 people on Thursday, after they stormed police stations and burned homes and other property belonging to Aristide supporters. On Saturday, a convoy of about 150 heavily armed police officers entered the city, a government official said. The convoy was pelted with rocks and eventually surrounded after thousands of residents blocked the roads with boulders, discarded car parts, burning tires and an overturned bus. After several hours of gunfire, the Gonaives Resistance Front said it still controlled the city. There was no word from local officials or police on the status of the city. Some of the rebels showed off weapons that included assault rifles and pistols they said Aristide gave them or that they took from police stations Thursday. The rebels were once supporters of Aristide, but they turned against him in September after their leader, Amiot Metayer, was assassinated. They blame Aristide for his death. He has denied being involved. The government tried Saturday to make good on its promise to retake Gonaives. Government spokesman Mario Dupuy called the rebels terrorists and said the government would respond to protect the citizens of Gonaives. But many residents said they no longer support Aristide and took to the streets by the thousands chanting ``Aristide must go!'' ``What's happening here concerns all of Haiti,'' said Jude Moise, 37, an electrician. ``Naturally, I'm here for change.'' Moise, who said he once supported Aristide, branded the president a terrorist. ``I fought too hard for him and I regret I gave my life for him,'' Moise said. ``Now we are ready to kill all of the police that he sends here with the weapons that Aristide gave us. We're ready to die.'' Moise said Aristide maintains he enjoys the support of the majority of Haitians and that it's only a minority calling for his resignation. But that is not the case, Moise said: ``We're not a minority.'' Other cities did not escape unrest. In Saint-Marc, members of an anti-Aristide group called the Assembly of St. Marc Militants were seen carrying assault weapons. Local radio stations reported that there were no police officers in the city. The Organization of American States and the U.S. Embassy issued statements denouncing the violence. ``All political changes, be they in Gonaives, in the North or elsewhere in Haiti, must be done peacefully and democratically,'' the OAS statement said. ``The response to violence is not more violence but the state's respect for law and human dignity.'' --- Correspondent Amy Bracken contributed to this report from Port-au-Prince. --- © 2004, The Miami Herald. Visit The Miami Herald Web edition on the World Wide Web at http://www.herald.com Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Information Services.

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