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Chaos in the Haitian capital
By Associated Press
Sunday, February 29, 2004 Port-au-Prince, Haiti - ``Chop off their heads and burn their homes!''

That's the cry from rioters in the Haitian capital, after a bloody rebellion drove President Jean-Bertrand Aristide from power today.

Before police scared them off later in the day, mobs of Aristide supporters roamed the streets armed with old rifles, pistols, machetes and sticks. Some fired wildly into crowds on the main square in front of the National Palace.

Meantime, looters emptied a police station and hit pharmacies, supermarkets and other businesses, mostly on the capital's outskirts. Inmates were freed from the National Penitentiary and other jails around the country.

The cry to chop off heads and burn homes was the war cry of the general (Jean-Jacques Dessalines) who ousted French troops and torched plantations to end slavery in Haiti 200 years ago.

Residents sat outside their homes in the tropical heat, some listening intently to radios pressed against their ears. One slum dweller said people there cried at the news that Aristide had fled because they loved him and believed he would help lift them from poverty.

( © Copyright 2004 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. )

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