Armed Protesters Seize Control of Haiti's Fourth-Largest City, Demand Uprising Against Aristide

AP | 8/06/02 | Michael Norton

[kattracks]

GONAIVES, Haiti (AP) - Calling for an uprising against President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, thousands of protesters, some armed, hurled stones at outnumbered Haitian police and blocked streets with flaming tires.

"We're going to feed Aristide to the fire!" people once loyal to the former slum priest yelled Monday night, standing near a smoldering barricade in the western port of Gonaives, Haiti's fourth-largest city.

Demonstrators spoke bitterly against the president, accusing him of orchestrating an attack in December that ultimately left 10 people dead, saying he staged the apparent coup himself as an excuse to silence the opposition.

"He betrayed us," said Jean Simeon, a former supporter who was among the protesters Monday.

"Aristide sent messengers at midnight December 16th to order us to defend him against the coup d'etat," said Simeon, a 54-year-old carpenter. "We were told to crush the opposition."

Aristide has claimed the Dec. 17 attack was aimed at overthrowing his government and assassinating him. But a report by the Organization of American States concluded that there was no coup.

The report, released in July after a three-month investigation, did not go so far as to back opposition claims that the attack was staged by the government to clamp down on dissent. But it charged that government officials and Aristide's party armed militants who plundered and burned the offices and homes of opposition leaders in a spate of attacks that followed.

Haiti's government and opposition are embroiled in a two-year dispute over flawed legislative elections in 2000. The stalemate is holding up hundreds of millions of dollars in foreign aid for the impoverished Caribbean nation of 8 million people.

In a sign of growing lawlessness, police in Gonaives have been unable to quell violence that began Friday when armed supporters of a formerly pro-Aristide street gang crashed a stolen tractor into a prison, freeing 159 inmates.

About two dozen riot police fired tear gas in a futile battle against thousands of stone-throwing demonstrators Monday, but were forced to retreat, said reporter Jean-Claude Noel of independent Radio Vision 2000. No injuries were reported.

"Today the people have taken possession of Gonaives," said protest leader Jean Tatoune, who was among the prisoners who escaped Friday. "Aristide has to go."

Tatoune, 44, was an important figure in the popular uprising that forced dictator Jean-Claude Duvalier into exile in 1986. A longtime Aristide opponent, Tatoune had been serving a life sentence for involvement in the 1994 killings of at least 15 Aristide supporters in Gonaives.

After the prison break, the gunmen set fire to the city hall and courthouse, demolishing both buildings. Only three escaped convicts were captured.

"We are fighting to save the country," said Amiot Metayer, an escaped inmate who was arrested for allegedly burning down opposition homes Dec. 17. The jail break was orchestrated by Metayar's supporters, a gang that calls itself the Cannibal Army. He made his remarks on Radio Metropole.

Metayar's gang wants Aristide's administration to be replaced by an interim government, new elections and higher wages for police and other state workers. Government officials reject the demands.

Aristide's party played down the threat in Gonaives.

"It is a small group of armed men that the police should deal with. One should not dramatize," party spokesman Jonas Petit said.

The army in neighboring Dominican Republic, which shares an island with Haiti, has reinforced security along the border to keep out escaped prisoners.

[kattracks]

Another clinton failure.

[happygrl]

I hope the MDC in Zimbabwe takes note of this.

[Oldeconomybuyer]

• "Conditions in Haiti are little better than they might be if the U.S. had done absolutely nothing.  Clinton's adventure amounts to a colossal waste of time, money (almost $3 billion in defense dollars better spent elsewhere), and effort." (Richmond Times-Dispatch, 12/28/95)
• "U.S. combat troops were quietly sent to Haiti last week in part to avert assassination attempts against Haitian political leaders before the U.S. elections, the Miami Herald reported on Friday."(Reuters, 8/2/96)

[SubMareener]

Actually, if Xlintoon had done nothing, there would be a relatively benign Military dictatorship for a while, followed by a transition to a Republican form of government. Not something that Leftist Communist Thugs like Xlintoon wanted.

[dennisw]

I swear that entire island has some kind of voodoo curse on it. The Haiti half and the DR half.

[OldFriend]

The legacy is becoming clearer by the day. FAILURE

[1Old Pro]

Another clinton failure.

Didn't he say he inherited the Haiti problem from former Presidents? (Even though he attempted to nation build using billions of our tax dollars in an ultimate failure)

[Pining_4_TX]

I swear that entire island has some kind of voodoo curse on it. The Haiti half and the DR half.

If it does, so does Africa.

[Pining_4_TX]

Yeah, I thought Herr Clinton had solved all of Haiti's problems. BTW, do we still have any troops there?

[RabidBartender]

The remaining contingent pulled out in 1999. I think some of our navy ships still stop there now and then so the sailors can paint a local school or something, but that half of the island is a lost cause.

I think the only military there are the marine guards at the embassy.

[wardaddy]

Cedras was a far better choice than Aristedes. However, anyone who has power in Haiti will eventually have two choices. Give up power to force or keep power by force. Haiti is about as prepared to be a Democratic Republic as I am prepared to climb K-2. It's a lost country that needs to be depopulated and reforested. It's a lost cause. Most of the more dismal parts of Africa actually stand a better chance than Haiti. Haiti has little or no infrastructure other than what the marines built back in the 20s and 30s. It was largely deforested over a century ago. It has to import nearly all food except mangoes. There is little potable water, little electricity outside half a dozen major towns, little medical help, little communications infrastructure outside PaP and Cap Hatien, little education. The counry was basically an oligarchy prior to Aristedes. A handful of Lebanese, Jewish, French Mulattoes, Syrian, German,American manufacturers and some pure African Haitians run all the commerce that can employ anyone. The vast majority of Haitians live as dirtscrabble farmers or in wretched slums.

It's a lost cause.

[andy_card]

We're going to feed Aristide to the fire!" people once loyal to the former slum priest

Was that on his job description?

[far sider]

WarDad. Where did you spend most of your time in Haiti? I have visited Port-au-Prince (including Cite Soliel) and Montrouis several times. I agree with you about Cedras. He seemed like a true patriot to me. I think Haiti would be in much better shape by now if the US hadn't intervened (under Bush-1, no less). When you've got Colin Powell and Sam Nunn(?) on your front porch, telling you to get out of Dodge or the missiles are gonna start flying, even Cedras couldn't stick it out. I believe this is just one of many examples of how the US has hurt Haiti, despite supposed good intentions.

[wardaddy]

I was all over Haiti from 1988 till 1990 or so. I maintained a residence at the Hotel Montana up in Petionville for 2 years.

I had a cargo ship carrying goods into Haiti during those years. At times I was under charter and other times I was also the owner of the cargo. Rice, Flour, Sugar, Cement, Lumber, Cars,....you name it almost. We docked in Miragoane, Gonaives, Jacmel, Jeremie, Cap Hatien, Le Cap, Petit Goave, San Marc, and some other backwaters I've forgotten. Some of those places we could not dock due to ship's size and draft so we had to anchor and lighter cargo.

I was there through several coups and saw lots of random and not so random violence between the various factions. Once on the veranda cafe at the Montana, I cold-cocked a local aristocratic Haitien arsewipe who owed me money on a cement load. He then ran to his daddy who had friends with the local Army barracks. I had to flee the country overland to a small Mennonite strip where I obliged a Cessna 172 to get me to Santo Domingo. I could go on and on with "Haiti Stories". It's about the most depraved place I've spent a lot of time in outside of Sierra Leone. It's in much worse shape than anywhere in this hemisphere and life is way cheap. But it can also be quite beautiful and the country folk are very friendly unless riled up in mob fashion. Excellent French food for cheap in Petionville and Kensecoff also. The corruption is endemic.

Aristedes is a pathological killer. No different than Papa Doc in priest's robes....a real nutcase. Papa Doc....nutty and mean as he was ....at least provided order.

One last incredible story. As you know....cocaine transhipment is big business in Haiti. Back while I was there, a dope plane out of Colombia got tailed by some US interdiction plane and dumped their load overland in Haiti hoping I suppose to get ground contacts to retrieve it. Well, some of the very very rural locals (I'm talking no roads just donkey trails) found some of the bales and cut them open and thought it was some kind of strange flour and cooked it and tried to eat it...some died. How bizarre. There are a lot of hungry folks there who subsist on mangoes. Their whole mouth area gets an orange stain to it which is semi-permanent. I have seen hungry folks scramble for broken rice bags and scoop up raw uncooked rice and eat it on the spot.

Haiti is a world unto itself.

[far sider]

Wow. Very interesting. You certainly know the place. I visited the Montana a few times but never stayed there. We stayed at a guest house in Petionville operated by Christian Service International.

We docked in Miragoane, Gonaives, Jacmel, Jeremie, Cap Hatien, Le Cap, Petit Goave, San Marc, and some other backwaters I've forgotten.

I spent two weeks in Montrouis about 20-30 miles south of San Marc. I've been to San Marc.

Aristedes is a pathological killer. No different than Papa Doc in priest's robes....a real nutcase. Papa Doc....nutty and mean as he was ....at least provided order.

A Haitian from the country side told me the only difference he could tell after Aristide took over was that they quit spraying for mosquitos. I think they current uprising is just an example of "Live by the sword, die by the sword." Those people rebelling against Aristide now are just doing what he taught them.

One last incredible story. As you know....cocaine transhipment is big business in Haiti. Back while I was there, a dope plane out of Colombia got tailed by some US interdiction plane and dumped their load overland in Haiti hoping I suppose to get ground contacts to retrieve it. Well, some of the very very rural locals (I'm talking no roads just donkey trails) found some of the bales and cut them open and thought it was some kind of strange flour and cooked it and tried to eat it...some died. How bizarre.

I think Amy Wilentz wrote about something like this in her book, The Rainy Season. It was a good book but she was very sympathetic to Aristide at the time.

I was in an internet discussion group about Haiti at one time. It was strange mix of a lot of different types of people: professors, Haitians living in America, Mormons, voodooists, socialists, etc. Mostly they were a bunch of know-it-alls. Once I posted a question: "if someone gave you $100,000,000 to spend in Haiti to make a long term difference in the lives of the people, even in a limited area of the country, what would be the best way to spend it?" Nobody had an answer, except education and libraries. Obviously that's a good thing but it wasn't what I was looking for.

[wardaddy]

Probably Haiti's only salvation would be tourism. But you would have to lay a lot of infrastructure and quell the people. Not an easy task....a number have tried and failed.

[lawdog]

Clinton "legacy" bump !

[happygrl]

I swear that entire island has some kind of voodoo curse on it.

More than one person has come to this conclusion.

Actually, voodoo does represent a worldview where, no matter what one does, someone can undermine your efforts through magic. Not an outlook which leads to progress.

[dennisw]

I swear that entire island has some kind of voodoo curse on it.

More than one person has come to this conclusion.

Here I thought I was the only one :)

[blam]

Reminds me of an old Peter Lorrie movie.