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 Topic: beyong Port-au-Prince |
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Message posted by digiti12 on March-30-2004 at 2:50pm - IP Logged
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| digiti12 |
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Standard Member
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United States
April-07-2003
4 Posts |
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Beyond Port-au-Prince: Haiti news round-up - 25 March 2004
by Charles Arthur for the Haiti Support Group
On 21 March, interim Prime Minister, Gerard Latortue, addressed a large crowd
gathered at the Plaza of Independence, in the city of Gonaives. Latortue
began by requesting a moment of silence for Amiot Metayer, the local leader who
was assassinated - his followers charge on orders from Aristide - on 22
September 2003.
(Metayer was an Aristide supporter who human rights organisations and the
Organisation of American States (OAS) had demanded be arrested for alleged
involvement in the murder of a security guard, burnt to death when Aristide
supporters set fire to properties belonging to leaders of opposition parties in
Gonaives, on 17 December 2001. In 2002 he was arrested, but escaped from prison in
August that year, together with Jean Tatoune, the former FRAPH chief who was
serving a life sentence for his participation in a massacre of Aristide
supporters in 1994. From the time of Metayer's assassination at the end of September
2003, Tatoune and Metayer's supporters led an armed uprising against the
government in Gonaives.)
In his speech in Gonaives on 21 March, Latortue described the armed rebels as
"freedom fighters". Rebel leaders, including the escaped murderer, Tatoune,
sat on a platform alongside Latortue, OAS representative David Lee, and
recently installed interim Justice minister, Bernard Gousse, and interim Interior
minister, retired General Herard Abraham. David Lee told reporters that
Latortue's visit to Gonaives symbolised "a return of authority." Asked how he felt
about the praise for Amiot Metayer, Lee said, "We're trying to encourage
reconciliation." Later the same day, rebel leader, Butuer Metayer, (brother of Amiot),
who Latortue had earlier hailed as one of the "freedom fighters", told the
Associated Press, "Our plan is to keep working with the government, (but) if the
government cannot work with us, we will overthrow it."
In a 22 March Reuters report, Alex Dupuy, a respected Haitian commentator and
sociology professor at Wesleyan University, USA, said, "What is alarming
indeed is that rather than trying to reconcile the conflicting parties ... this
government seems to be moving in exactly the opposite direction, making
alliances with known criminals. The veil has been removed. What I see happening is the
return to the unfinished agenda of 1991."
West Department
On 13 March, two men were shot dead by members of Guy Philippe's entourage in
the village of Vialet. Guy Philippe, the military leader of the armed
insurgents, was reportedly touring towns in the west and south, and had just left the
town of Petit-Goâve. The deaths occured following arguments between local
factions allied to armed insurgents. Later that day, in Petit-Goâve, hostilities
broke out between factions within the MDN party (neo-Duvalierist party in the
Democratic Convergence coalition). There was a machine gun attack on the
residence of local MDN leader, Montigène Sincère. The attack was believed to be the
result of rivalries, both for control over the town and for affiliation with
Philippe's nascent administration. Sincère had organised Philippe's visit to
Petit-Goâve.
The Haitian Press Agency (AHP) on 22 March reported that the police station
in the town of Grand-Goâve is controlled by armed irregulars, who say their
function is provide security for the local population. These men are led by Ti
Nènè who had led an armed opposition group which briefly took control of the
town in early February.
Meanwhile, in Port-au-Prince, the Haiti Press Network reported that the
bodies of six young men were found in the streets of the Cité Militaire district of
Delmas, on the morning of 21 March. According to eye-witnesses, the victims
had been shot dead by police officers. An Associated Press photographer found
three of the dead in a private morgue in La Saline, and took pictures, showing
they had bags over their heads and hands tied behind their backs.
On 15 March, Radio Caraïbes reported that the Lavalas Family mayor of
Gonaïves, Taupa Moïse, had been kidnapped from a house in Port-au-Prince. The
kidnappers demanded a US$100,000 ransom.
South-East Department
On 22 March, Radio Signal FM reported that following Guy Philippe's visit to
the town of Jacmel, former members of the demobilised Army, under the command
of Arnel Bélizaire, had begun patrolling the streets. Bélizaire said he
believed that a re-instated Army was an indispensable part of the new Haiti.
South Department
A Reuters article dated 23 March quoted reports sent to the United Nations by
non-governmental organisations detailing public executions carried out by the
irregular armed force that controls the city of Les Cayes. According to the
UN's Elisabeth Byrs, each morning in the main square, the self-appointed
security force shoots accused thieves in front of crowds of local people. "There is
no trial," Byrs said.
Central Plateau
An AHP report, dated 24 March, states that former soldiers led by Joseph
Jean-Baptiste, the leader of the irregular armed forces in the Central Plateau,
have taken control of the police station in the town of Mirebalais.
Jean-Baptiste and his men disarmed the official police officers and installed their own
'police force' under a new commander, a former soldier called Philippe.
According to Jean-Baptiste, who is based in the town of Hinche, the department has no
need of any presence of the multinational force. On 9 March, he told the
radio station, Vision 2000, "We at the Haitian armed forces need somewhere where
we can reassemble ourselves and where we can wait for the response the new
Haitian authorities will give for the future of the army."
North-East Department
On 23 March, the United Nations' Elisabeth Byrs told Reuters that most of
Fort Liberté, the department capital, is the hands of escaped convicts. "The town
is virtually deserted. There is no market. Many houses have been burned.
Prisoners control most parts of the city," said Byrs.
In the border town of Ouanaminthe, irregular armed forces under the command
of Jean Robert, aka Ovep, are in control. Robert was arrested by the Dominican
authorities on 12 March in connection with his alleged involvement in the
shooting dead of two Dominican border guards when armed insurgents crossed into
Haiti at Dajabon on 14 February. In reprisal for the arrest, Robert's men took
10 Dominicans hostage and threatened to kill them. On 13 March, the Dominican
authorities negotiated the simultaneous release of Robert and the hostages. On
15 March, Robert's men demonstrated their strength by stopping all traffic
from crossing to the weekly market at Dajabon. Earlier, on 2 March, Robert's men
had intervened on behalf of the Group M company to suppress strike action by
workers at the Codevi free trade zone.
North Department
Since 22 February, the city of Cap-Haitien has been under the control of
armed irregular forces. Rumours that some 20 Aristide supporters were imprisoned
in a container or several days before it was dumped into the sea by the armed
irregulars, have not yet been confirmed. In a French Press Agency report, dated
24 March, Commandant Xavier Pons of the French military force said his men
had seen a dead body attached to a buoy floating in the Cap-Haiten bay. Two
anonymous sources quoted in the same report said they had seen two other bodies in
the sea to the north of Cap-Haitien. They said the people had been executed,
tied to cement blocks and metal pieces, and then thrown into the sea. Now
decomposed, the bodies has risen to the surface. In an Associated Press (AP)
report dated 23 March, a resident named as Job Denis said, "The fishermen come in
and say all they've seen are bodies."
In the same AP report, dated 23 March, it was stated that the commander of
the irregular armed forces in Cap-Haitien is Louis-Jodel Chamblain, the former
FRAPH leader and convicted murderer. He and his men have made their base in a
top hotel. AP reported that when there is a problem, local businessmen - who
have helped pay the rebels' bills for food and lodging - call on the armed
irregulars and not the police. Chamblain apparently acts as a de facto judge in
Cap-Haitien. He and his men have jailed dozens of people accused of everything
from petty thievery to fighting for Aristide. Human Rights Watch reported that
on 20 March the armed irregulars were illegally detaining at least 16
prisoners.
North-West Department
On 15 March, Father Burnet Cherisol of the organisation, Child Care Haiti,
based in Mare Rouge, told a meeting in London, UK, that there had been violence
in Port-de-Paix, but not in the region around Mare Rouge. He added, however,
that there had been a lot of threats of violence, mainly as a consequence of
marauding gangs coming from the towns, trying to pillage and steal whatever they
could take.
At the end of February, OxfamGB reported that on 24 February armed gangs took
over the city of Port-de-Paix, and that subsequently all state vehicles
(agriculture, health, police, justice, etc.) had been stolen, and that looting,
fleecing, and private car thefts were carried out with complete impunity.
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