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Article published Feb 23, 2004
Rebels take major city in Haiti

Haitian rebel leader Louis-Jodel Chamblain shoots as the rebels take over the police station of Cap-Haitien, Haiti, Sunday, Feb.22, 2004. Rebels captured Haiti's second-largest city with little resistance Sunday, claiming Cap-Haitien as their biggest prize in a two-week uprising that has driven government forces from half the country. (AP Photo/Walter Astrada)
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CAP-HAITIEN, Haiti - Rebels captured Haiti's second-largest city with little resistance Sunday, claiming Cap-Haitien as their biggest prize in a two-week uprising that has driven government forces from half the country.
The fighters fired celebratory rounds as people looted and torched the police station and other buildings. A pall of black smoke hung over the city of 500,000.
Flush with victory after the takeover of Cap-Haitien, rebel leader Guy Philippe said he was setting his sights on the capital, Port-au-Prince.
"I think that in less than 15 days we will control all of Haiti," Philippe said in an interview with two foreign reporters in a Cap-Haitien hotel room as he swigged from a bottle of Prestige beer.
As Philippe spoke, his fighters, clad in camouflage uniforms and black flak jackets, sat by the hotel pool in lounge chairs, drinking beer and eating dishes of goat, chicken, rice and beans.
Aristide, wildly popular when he became Haiti's first freely elected leader in 1990, has lost support since flawed legislative elections in 2000 that led international donors to freeze millions of dollars in aid.
Opponents accuse him of breaking promises to help the poor, allowing corruption fueled by drug-trafficking and masterminding attacks on opponents by armed gangs — charges the president denies.
The rebels say they have no political agenda beyond ousting Aristide.
But the man who started the rebellion, Gonaives gang leader Buteur Metayer, on Thursday declared himself the president of liberated Haiti. The rebels have made no effort to install any kind of control, beyond halting a near-riot as people rushed to get food aid in Gonaives on Thursday.
In taking Cap-Haitien on Sunday, rebels said their force of about 200 fighters only met resistance at the city's airport, where Philippe said eight militant civilians loyal to President Jean-Bertrand Aristide were killed in a gunbattle.
In addition, four bodies were seen on the streets, for a known total death toll of 12 after the day's fighting and mayhem in Cap-Haitien. At least one rebel was wounded.
Aristide supporters commandeered a plane from the airport, and witnesses said those who fled on it included seven police officers and former Aristide lawmaker Nawoum Marcellus, whose Radio Africa had been inciting violence against opponents.
"We came in today and we took Cap-Haitien; tomorrow we take Port-au-Prince" the capital, boasted Lucien Estime, a 19-year-old who joined the popular rebellion from the hamlet of Saint Raphael, south of Cap-Haitien.
"Our mission is to liberate Haiti," he said.
The victory leaves more than half of Haiti beyond control of the central government.
As that reality set in, panic began spreading Sunday in Port-au-Prince.
Sources close to the government told The Associated Press that several Cabinet ministers were asking friends for places to hide in case the capital is attacked.
On the highway leading into Port-au-Prince from the north, Aristide partisans set up flaming barricades Sunday to block any rebel advance.
In Cap-Haitien, thousands of people shouting "Aristide fini" — Aristide is finished — marched along with about 40 rebels in commandeered cars.
"We're free," people shouted, ripping Aristide posters off walls.
Last changed: Feb 23, 2004
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