Insurrection in the Making: The Crisis in Haiti February 2004

[seemslikeadream]

Members of the opposition force, who took control of the town of Gonaives last Thursday, remain in power five days later.


What is the Political Backdrop to the Conflict?

The crisis dates back to a political stalemate stemming from a contested election. In 2000—the same year that George Bush stole the US presidency—Haiti held elections for 7,500 positions nationwide. Election observers contested the winners of seven senate seats. President Aristide balked at first, but eventually yielded and the seven senators resigned. Members of Haiti’s elite, long hostile to Aristide’s progressive economic agenda, saw the controversy as an opportunity to derail his government.

Since 2001, human rights activists and humanitarian workers in Haiti have documented numerous cases of opposition vigilantes killing government officials and bystanders in attacks on the state power station, health clinics, police stations and government vehicles. The US government did not condemn any of these killings.

In January 2004, the opposition escalated its protests. At some demonstrations, government supporters, who represent Haiti’s poorest sectors, attacked opposition activists. Only then did US Secretary of State Powell issue a one-sided condemnation of “militant Aristide supporters.”

In a country as poor as Haiti, control over the institutions of the state is one of the only sources of wealth, making national politics an arena of violent competition. Similarly, in an environment of 70 percent unemployment, the prospect of long-term work as a paramilitary fighter leads many young men to join these forces.
more
http://www.madre.org/country_haiti_crisis.html



A woman walks past garbage near one of the most important markets in Port-au-Prince, Thursday, Feb. 12, 2004. The World Food Program has warned of a looming humanitarian crisis in northern Haiti because food trucks cannot get through barricades blocking the main road from Port-au-Prince to Cap-Haitien at Gonaives, which is taking its toll on daily life in the capital.


No End in Sight
Bookstore
Published by the Tribune, a Labour newspaper
1/30/04

Aristide's Lavalas Family is essentially a populist party, strong on pro-poor rhetoric but short on ideas of how to transform a country still divided between, on the one hand the 90 per cent of the population who are desperately poor peasant farmers and unemployed shanty-town dwellers and, on the other, the tiny elite running the import-export sector and the small light industry located in and around Port-au-Prince. Faced with an absence of foreign aid which could have been used for public works projects, thus providing the infrastructure and jobs to benefit the poorer sectors, the Government has settled on a two-pronged approach to the crisis.

http://www.americas.org/item_13433


AN ABSENCE OF FOREIGN AID

[seemslikeadream]

1. United Nations fears Haiti crisis

The United Nations has warned of an impending humanitarian crisis in Haiti, which has seen an escalation of violence, mainly in the north.
Aid agency officials said clashes between rebels and security forces were seriously disrupting the distribution of food to tens of thousands of people.

The World Food Programme has been helping about 25,000 people who lost their harvests in the December floods.

About 40 people have died in street violence since last Thursday.


Yvon Neptune visited a burned-out police station in Saint Marc
About 10 towns in north-western Haiti have been affected by the street violence, follows months of anti-government protests.

Christiane Berthiaume, spokeswoman for the UN World Food Program, said the violence was hampering aid deliveries.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/3477657.stm


Flashpoints: Is the US...participating in the destabilization...of Haiti?
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=362052


Haitian Rebels Take Over Another Town

Haitian rebels forced police out of another northern town and blocked a main road leading to the Dominican Republic, witnesses said Saturday as aid workers warned food was running out in northern cities and towns.

In Washington, members of the Organization of American States called on all parties to ensure a peaceful and democratic outcome to the 9-day-old rebellion aimed at ousting President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. About 50 people have died in the uprising.

Emergency supplies of flour, cooking oil, and other staples are projected to run out in four days in northern areas cut off by roadblocks guarded by rebels. The insurgents have seized Gonaives, Haiti's fourth-largest city, and burned down police stations in a dozen other towns.
http://abcnews.go.com/wire/World/ap20040214_686.html


Allows Embassy Staff to Leave Haiti

The State Department authorized on Tuesday the departure of family members and nonemergency employees of the U.S. Embassy in Haiti as a result of increased political violence in the country.

The travel warning also urged private Americans to get out of Haiti if they can do it safely and said embassy personnel could not leave the area around Port-au-Prince, the capital.

Additionally, the department advised U.S. citizens to scrap any plans for going to Haiti. "Americans are reminded of the potential for spontaneous demonstrations and violent confrontations between government supporters and students and other groups that oppose the government of Haiti," the warning said.
http://abcnews.go.com/wire/World/ap20040210_2170.html

Haiti rebels plan offensive
15/02/2004 07:03 - (SA)
Bloody clashes in Haiti
Haiti disappoints US - Powell

Gonaives - Witnesses say police have fled two more towns as Haitian rebels seeking to topple President Jean-Bertrand Aristide brought in reinforcements from the neighbouring Dominican Republic, including the exiled former leader of the eighties death squads and a former police chief accused of fomenting a coup.

Twenty commandos have arrived in Haiti, led by Louis-Jodel Chamblain, a former Haitian soldier who headed army death squads in 1987 and a militia known as the Front for the Advancement and Progress of Haiti, or FRAPH, which killed and maimed dozens of people between 1992 and 1994.

Guy Philippe, a former police chief who fled to the Dominican Republic after being accused by the Haitian government of fomenting a coup in 2002, also arrived in Gonaives to help the rebels prepare for an expected showdown with the government.

http://www.news24.com/News24/World/News/0,,2-10-1462_1483987,00.html

Armed Group Seizes Haitian City; 4 Killed


An armed opposition group seized control of Haiti's fourth-largest city Thursday, burning a police station, freeing prisoners and leaving at least four people reported dead and 20 wounded in clashes with police.

Members of the Gonaives Resistance Front began the assault shortly after noon in Gonaives, setting afire the mayor's home and then dousing the police station with fuel and lighting it while officers fled, Haitian radio reports said.

http://abcnews.go.com/wire/World/ap20040205_1922.html


Rebels seize Haitian city

Gonaïves, Haiti — Hundreds of people looted a smouldering police station on Friday, a day after an armed opposition group took control of Haiti's fourth-largest city in the biggest uprising yet aimed at the overthrow of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.

“The revolution has begun,” declared Dormessan Philippe, a 27-year-old in the crowd milling outside the police station.

At least seven people were killed in Thursday's attack — four civilians and three police officers — and 20 were wounded, according to the Haitian Red Cross. The four were anti-government militants killed in gunbattles with police, Gonaïves Resistance Front leader Wynter Étienne told Radio Vision 2000.

Mr. Étienne's group set ablaze a police station, the home of pro-Aristide Mayor Stéphan Moïse and a building housing a gas station and other businesses belonging to Mr. Moïse.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/Page/document/v4/sub/MarketingPage?user_URL=http://www.theglobeandmail.com%2Fservlet%2Fstory%2FRTGAM.20040206.whaiti0206%2FBNStory%2FInternational%2F&ord=1108142914073&brand=theglobeandmail&force_login=true


Rebels Kill at Least 3 Haitian Policemen

GONAIVES, Haiti - Police reinforcements fought bloody battles with gunmen as they tried to retake Haiti's fourth-largest city Saturday from rebels who seized it two days earlier in a challenge to President Jean- Bertrand Aristide.


At least three police were killed, and crowds mutilated the corpses.

...

Militants also have attacked police stations and forced out police in at least five small towns near Gonaives, Haitian radio reports said. Judge Walter Pierre told private Radio Ginen that armed men were occupying the police station in the town of Anse Rouge on Saturday and had confiscated weapons.

The rebellion had not yet reached Port-au-Prince, the capital, where throngs of government supporters marched Saturday to mark the third anniversary of Aristide's second inauguration.

more: http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=589&nci...

[seemslikeadream]

2. DUer Snazzy predicts a coup in Haiti

Snazzy (1000+ posts) Sun Feb-08-04 06:52 PM
Response to Original message

1. Coup coming?
Wonder what Otto Reich and the rest of resurrected team Iran-Contra is up to lately. Seeing little hints of deja vu maneuvering in Venezuela, Columbia, Cuba. Wonder if something is up in Haiti.

No idea if the US is involved--don't recall any stories re: that recently, but watch for it. Certainly "we" haven't been doing enough to piss off the Western Hemisphere recently. There is room for improvement!
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=353490#353509


Published on Monday, February 9, 2004 by OneWorld.net
Haiti Unrest Spells Trouble for Aristide, Bush
by Jim Lobe

WASHINGTON -- A spreading and increasingly violent rebellion against Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide is destabilizing the Caribbean nation in ways that could move it to the top of Washington's foreign-policy.

U.S. officials are deeply concerned that the violence, if not quickly ended, may well spark a new exodus of thousands of Haitian boat people headed for the United States. Reported plans to interdict refugees on the high seas and either repatriate them or transport them to hastily built camps at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba--as Washington did in the early 1990s--are already drawing fire.

While tensions have been building for months, last week's takeover by an anti-Aristide gang of Gonaives, the country's fourth largest city, has signaled a major escalation. The gang, which calls itself the Gonaives Resistance Front, was once loyal to the Haitian president but turned against him after the killing under mysterious circumstances of their leader last year.

The takeover set off a widespread looting and burning of government offices throughout the city. When police tried to retake the city, they were beaten back in fighting in which at least nine people were killed, including seven police.
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/0209-06.htm



Crowds Loot Haiti Port; Uprising Spreads

Hundreds of Haitians looted TV sets, mattresses and sacks of flour from shipping containers Sunday in this port town, one of several communities seized by rebels in a bloody uprising against President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.

Using felled trees, flaming tires and car chassis, residents blocked streets throughout St. Marc a day after militants drove out police in gunbattles that killed two people. Many residents have formed neighborhood groups to back insurgents in their push to expel the president.

"After Aristide leaves, the country will return to normal," said Axel Philippe, 34, among dozens massed on the highway leading to St. Marc, a city of about 100,000 located some 45 miles northwest of the capital, Port-au-Prince.
http://www.mycaribbeannews.com/news/040209.htm



Dozens killed in Haitian riots
Last Updated Mon, 09 Feb 2004 18:01:03



PORT-AU-PRINCE - Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide faced increased pressure to resign Monday after four days of rioting led by armed rebels killed as many as 40 people and led to widespread looting.

Prime Minister Yvon Neptune accused the opposition of trying to mount a coup to overthrow Aristide, who won legislative elections in 2000, but international observers called the vote seriously flawed.

Three major centres, Gonaives, St-Marc and Grand Goave, were under control of the rebels on Monday, as well as several smaller towns.

http://www.cbc.ca/stories/2004/02/09/haiti_unrest040209


Haitian police retake major city

Television pictures showed people
looting from shipping containers

Haitian authorities have retaken a key northern city from rebels opposed to President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.

Police, backed by helicopters, entered the port of Saint-Marc, about 65 miles (105km) north of the capital Port-au-Prince, city residents said.

Prime Minister Yvon Neptune flew to the city and urged all sides to help restore calm.

Earlier, Mr Neptune accused the civil opposition of trying to mount a coup as unrest continued to spread in Haiti.

About 10 towns in northwestern Haiti have been affected by the five-day street violence in which some 40 people have been reportedly killed.

An opposition spokesman denied backing the unrest and called for foreign intervention to avert civil war

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/3470911.stm

[seemslikeadream]

3. Right wing-led rebellion convulses Haiti

Local residents line up at the Park Vincent in Gonaives, Haiti, to receive food from the international non-governmental organization CARE, Tuesday, Feb. 17, 2004. (AP Photo/Walter Astrada)


Right wing-led rebellion convulses Haiti
By Richard Dufour
12 February 2004

...

The Gonaïves rebel group has been widely portrayed in the press as a criminal gang, based in the city’s slums, that until recently enjoyed the patronage of Aristide and his Lavalas party. “But at its upper echelons,” reports the Washington Post, “the group appears to be led by former members of the Haitian military, dissolved in 1994 when Aristide returned to power, and the paramilitary group that opposed him.”

The paramilitary group to which the Post alludes was known as FRAPH. During the three-year rule of the military junta that deposed the first Aristide government in September 1991, FRAPH death squads carried out a campaign of terror aimed at stamping out support for Aristide, who because of his earlier opposition to the Duvalier dictatorship and promises of social reform enjoyed widespread popular support.

Among the very first actions taken by the U.S. marines who restored Aristide to power in 1994 was to raid FRAPH’s headquarters and seize thousands of documents. To this day, the U.S. government refuses to turn the FRAPH files over to Haitian authorities or to extradite Emmanuel Constant, FRAPH’s founder-leader. Constant, who now lives in New York, has admitted that he was a CIA operative.

Initially the opposition’s political leaders—a disparate group of businessmen, ex-Aristide supporters, former Duvalierists and supporters of the 1991 coup—refused to condemn the Gonaïves uprising. But with the United Nations warning of an imminent humanitarian crisis in Haiti and US newspaper editorialists raising fears that Haiti’s descent into civil war could trigger a massive influx of Haitian refugees, they began issuing statements disassociating themselves from the violence.

Their objective, however, remains unchanged. By provoking social chaos they hope to convince Washington to use its economi,c political and military might to force Aristide, whose term ends only in 2006, from office. André Apaid, a sweatshop owner who heads one of the two main opposition groups, declared, “We continue to maintain the nonviolent approach. But the sooner the international community recognizes that Mr. Aristide is the cause of the chaos, the sooner a peaceful process to a transition can take place. The more the wait, the more costly it will be to the United States and the world.”
more
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2004/feb2004/hait-f12.shtml


Haiti Uprising Leaves at Least 47 Dead

By IAN JAMES
The Associated Press
Thursday, February 12, 2004; 2:32 AM

GONAIVES, Haiti - President Jean-Bertrand Aristide vowed to serve out the rest of his term despite an armed uprising that has left at least 47 dead, sparked looting and reprisal killings, and weakened his presidency.

The United States has ruled out intervention, but the White House rebuked Aristide's government for the violence and called on the leader to respect human rights.

Wearing stolen police helmets and carrying stolen weapons, rebels on Wednesday patrolled the streets of Gonaives, Haiti's fourth-largest city, in a search for detractors and government supporters. One accused government hitman was doused with gasoline and set ablaze; another was shot to death.

In the port city of St. Marc, south of Gonaives, police attacked rebels who were holed up in a slum and gunmen loyal to Aristide torched homes. Photographers saw three dead bodies with bullet wounds to their heads. Witnesses said the victims were anti-Aristide activists.

more
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A35231-2004Feb12?language=printer
http://www.iwar.org.uk/pipermail/infocon/2004-February/001065.html

Haitian Rebels Take Over Another Town

Haitian rebels forced police out of another northern town and blocked a main road leading to the Dominican Republic, witnesses said Saturday as aid workers warned food was running out in northern cities and towns.

In Washington, members of the Organization of American States called on all parties to ensure a peaceful and democratic outcome to the 9-day-old rebellion aimed at ousting President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. About 50 people have died in the uprising.

Emergency supplies of flour, cooking oil, and other staples are projected to run out in four days in northern areas cut off by roadblocks guarded by rebels. The insurgents have seized Gonaives, Haiti's fourth-largest city, and burned down police stations in a dozen other towns.

more
http://abcnews.go.com/wire/World/ap20040214_686.html
http://www.ifa-usapray.org/IFI/HaitiPrayerAlerts/Haitian%20Rebels%20Take%20Over%20Another%20Town%20-%20February%2014,%202004.htm



Haiti rebels plan offensive
15/02/2004 07:03 - (SA)

Bloody clashes in Haiti

Haiti disappoints US - Powell

Gonaives - Witnesses say police have fled two more towns as Haitian rebels seeking to topple President Jean-Bertrand Aristide brought in reinforcements from the neighbouring Dominican Republic, including the exiled former leader of the eighties death squads and a former police chief accused of fomenting a coup.

Twenty commandos have arrived in Haiti, led by Louis-Jodel Chamblain, a former Haitian soldier who headed army death squads in 1987 and a militia known as the Front for the Advancement and Progress of Haiti, or FRAPH, which killed and maimed dozens of people between 1992 and 1994.

Guy Philippe, a former police chief who fled to the Dominican Republic after being accused by the Haitian government of fomenting a coup in 2002, also arrived in Gonaives to help the rebels prepare for an expected showdown with the government.

Working with rebels
more
http://www.news24.com/News24/World/News/0,,2-10-1462_1483987,00.html


Haiti Rebels Kill Police Chief, Officers

Haiti's rebellion spread to the central city of Hinche on Monday as rebels and former soldiers killed at least three officers at a police station. President Jean-Bertrand Aristide pleaded for foreign help to stop the bloodshed.

The rebels descended on the police station in Hinche, about 70 miles northwest of Port-au-Prince, according to a Haitian security official who spoke on condition of anonymity. They killed district police chief Maxime Jonas, pushed police out of the city and threatened government supporters, the official said.

About 50 rebels descended on the police station in Hinche, about 70 miles northwest of Port-au-Prince. They killed district police chief Maxime Jonas, pushed police out of the city and freed prisoners from the jail before burning the station.

Louis-Jodel Chamblain, a former Haitian soldier who led a paramilitary group known as the Front for the Advancement and Progress of Haiti, or FRAPH, which killed and maimed hundreds of people between 1991 and 1994, reportedly led the attack, according to witnesses.
more
http://abcnews.go.com/wire/World/ap20040216_1303.html
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2004-02/17/content_306729.htm

Haiti rebels bring in reinforcements from Dominican Republic, fortify nort
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=365394&mesg_id=365394


Posted on Mon, Feb. 16, 2004

Dominican government calls for more help for Haiti

PETER PRENGAMAN


SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic - The Dominican government on Monday called for more international assistance to quell the Haitian uprising, saying the violence could hurt the Caribbean region.

Meanwhile, authorities suspended an open air border market frequented by hundreds of Haitians and Dominicans because of tensions over the killings of two Dominican soldiers last weekend.

Secretary of Foreign Relations Frank Guerrero Prats said Monday the situation in Haiti wouldn't be solved without the help of other countries.

"It's time for the international community, multilateral organizations and friendly governments to act with urgency to combat a worsening crisis that could be detrimental for the entire region," Guerrero said in a statement, responding to written questions by The Associated Press.

more
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/breaking_news...
http://discuss.agonist.org/yabbse/index.php?board=1;action=display;threadid=16213;start=50


American missionaries leave violence-swept Haiti

Leaving behind an island aflame in civil strife, a planeload of American missionaries urged to leave Haiti flew into Palm Beach International Airport Tuesday.

"They're doing the best they can, but it's getting closer and closer to Cap Haitien," Hubele said...

..roadblocks and street violence of recent weeks were preventing missionary groups from getting supplies at the airports and distributing them around the island..

more
http://www.twincities.com/mld/twincities/news/nation/7976064.htm?1c