Tue Feb 24 2004
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"We will be in Port-au-Prince in a few days" - rebel leader Guy Philippe
US Marines arrive in Haitian capital 6.50AM, 24 Feb 2004 The US has sent Marines to the Haitian capital to protect its embassy as rebel leaders announced they will be in Port-au-Prince within days. After seizing control of the northern city of Cap Haitien on Sunday, rebel leaders said they were ready to take the entire country and liberate it from President Jean-Bertrand Aristide's "slavery." "We will be in Port-au-Prince in a few days," rebel leader Guy Philippe said on local radio. About 50 US Marines flew in on two C-130 Hercules transport planes to Port-au-Prince airport on a mission to protect the US Embassy and other US facilities in Haiti. The Marines, who appeared on edge, drove in a column of some 15 SUVs and three supply trucks to the embassy. France, which ruled Haiti until 1804, joined several other foreign governments in telling its citizens to leave. The international airport was packed with people, including US missionaries, clamouring for flights out in stifling heat. Aristide's government said it is to send reinforcements north and repeated a plea for international help for its hopelessly outgunned police. About 60 people have died in the revolt that erupted on February 5 in the poorest country in the Americas. Seizing their biggest prize so far, a ski-mask-clad rebel force of 200 on Sunday overran Cap Haitien, a city of about 500,000, putting anti-Aristide forces in control of much of the north. At least 10 people were killed during the attack, including several rebels, government spokesman Mario Dupuy said. Looters struck in Cap Haitien after the rebel advance. A mob hit a World Food Program warehouse on the outskirts of the city, taking about 800 metric tons of food valued at nearly £400,000. Other parts of the city appeared calm a day after the rebels struck. Cows ambled by the side of the runway at the airport and people on bicycles went about their business. Joking and relaxed, a rebel leader said his comrades would soon take over the rest of the country. "We will liberate Haiti from the slavery of Aristide," said Louis Jodel Chamblain. "So far, the only resistance we've encountered has been with machetes," Chamblain said at the city's airport. Chamblain, a former leader of a militia that terrorised Haitians in the early 1990s, was surrounded by about 50 rebel fighters dressed in military fatigues; some were armed with automatic rifles. The rebels wore riot gear and dark glasses with gas masks tied to their belts. The relative ease with which the rebels took Cap Haitien heightened fears in the capital, where Aristide still has plenty of supporters.
Feb 23: | Rebels overrun Haiti's second city
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