Haitians hail rebel troops

[Loonman]

http://www.boston.com/news/world/articles/2004/03/02/haitians_hail_rebel_troops/


Haitians hail rebel troops
No certainty on forming a government
By Susan Milligan, Globe Staff, 3/2/2004

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti -- Jubilant Haitians thronged the streets of the capital yesterday, celebrating the departure of former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide and giving a hero's welcome to the armed rebels who have become the most visible and organized force in the still-unstable country.


"Now we can breathe. Change is what we need. We were oppressed," said Jacob Bienaime, 60, one of thousands of Haitians who greeted the gun-waving rebels as they led a victory caravan from the mountain neighborhood of Petionville to the poorer city center.

Hundreds of US and French soldiers deployed around government facilities yesterday as Aristide took temporary refuge in the Central African Republic, pushed out of office by separate but equally aggressive pressures from the United States, domestic political opponents, and armed bands of rebels who said his presidency had devolved into an autocratic regime marked by corruption and human rights abuses.

© Copyright 2004 Globe Newspaper Company.