TUESDAY February 10, 2004

Anti-Aristide revolt in Haiti spreading fast
By Carol J. Williams Los Angeles Times PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti -- A bloody revolt against President Jean-Bertrand Aristide spread to a dozen towns and cities Monday as his political opponents warned that the violence could spiral out of control unless Aristide steps down. The United Nations, United States and France -- the Caribbean island's former colonial ruler -- expressed concern about the escalation of violence that has killed about four dozen Haitians in the past week. The United States called on Aristide's supporters and opponents to halt the deadly clashes. U.S. State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said the United States told the Haitian government to respect its people's human rights and urged it to negotiate a solution through two regional groups, the Caribbean Community, known as Caricom, and the Organization of American States. Aristide's government responded to the crisis by accusing rivals of trying to stage a coup d'etat. The government scored a small victory Monday afternoon after sending police reinforcements to the port of St. Marc, where armed rebels had seized control a day earlier. Police recovered their burned-out headquarters in the city of 100,000 when a pro-government gang broke through roadblocks and fired on rebels until they fled. Aristide opponents blamed the government for the violent outbreaks, saying the Haitian people have been driven to desperation by government repression and a decade of misrule by Aristide and his Lavalas Party. Haiti is the poorest country in the Americas, with half the population of 8.5 million malnourished and illiterate. For weeks, opposition groups have staged demonstrations against Aristide, a former priest who was ousted in a coup but restored to power in 1994 by a U.S. military intervention. The revolt erupted last Thursday when a formerly pro-Aristide group overran the police station in the coastal city of Gonaives. Inspired by the gang's success, armed Aristide opponents in St. Marc on Sunday also seized their city's police station. More than a dozen police officers were killed in the clashes. The unrest spread on Monday, with disgruntled Haitians taking encouragement from the Gonaives and St. Marc incidents to stage their own assaults on police stations -- seen here as symbols of Aristide's power. In several cities, looting of schools and food warehouses followed attacks on the police. People fled their homes, carrying their few belongings. The capital's mainstream political opposition groups plan a massive demonstration Thursday with the apparent expectation that momentum to drive out Aristide will have built throughout the country and the government will be too overwhelmed by the myriad challenges to contain them. The government is believed to have no more than 5,000 police, who are poorly equipped. Haiti lacks a national army because Aristide disbanded the force that helped depose him in 1991. "What is happening now is a general uprising," said Charles Baker, a leader of the Group of 184 movement pressing for Aristide's ouster and an interim government of national reconciliation. "People are tired of the situation they've been suffering for the past three years. They're tired of the terrorism they've had to endure." Some, though, feared the unrest could hurt the image of the opposition that has called for a peaceful transition. "If some elements take advantage of the situation to commit crimes, that has to be condemned," said Leopold Berlanger, a businessman and head of the Foundation for a New Haiti, one of the civil society groups urging Aristide to step down. "We have to condemn this because it is exactly because of the crimes of the government that we are in a revolt." Prime Minister Yvon Neptune, who made a brief visit to St. Marc after it was recaptured, denounced the unrest as part of a plot by opposition politicians to force the president to abandon the remaining two years of the term he won in 2000 when opposition groups boycotted to protest police abuse. "What we are doing is to make sure that peace is re-established. We are encouraging the police to get together with the population so that the cycle of violence can cease," Neptune told reporters. U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said the world body was following the crisis "very closely," and that it planned to step up its role in seeking a peaceful resolution. France also pledged to help. "Our officials on the ground are working together with the other diplomatic and consular missions" to ease the crisis, said French Foreign Ministry spokesman Herve Ladsous.

© Copyright 2004, The Salt Lake Tribune. All material found on Utah Online is copyrighted The Salt Lake Tribune and associated news services. No material may be reproduced or reused without explicit permission from The Salt Lake Tribune.