Haiti Rebels Push Toward Port City Center
Rebels on Sunday attacked the government’s last major stronghold in the north, Cap-Haitien, and witnesses reported heavy gunfire and explosions as the insurgents pushed toward the city center.
Smoke rose from the Cap-Haitien airport, where a manager with Tropical Airways said rebels commandeered a plane. The telephone line was cut before Allen Alexandre could say more.
Gunfire swelled near the center and shouting, panicked residents fled from the streets.
One man said police had fled from the city’s main police compound under attack from several gunmen who then freed about 250 prisoners from a jail inside.
“The men went in, they freed the prisoners, the police fled and the prisoners took all the weapons,” said Odril Jean, 25.
Jean said the attackers were armed with old rifles, shotguns and pistols. The rebels have generally been armed with far heavier weaponry, and the group that raided the prison may have been allies of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, possibly searching for recruits.
Witnesses said rebels had advanced from Cap-Haitien’s south, where Aristide loyalists set up burning barricades.
Rebel leader Guy Philippe had threatened for days to attack Cap-Haitien, the country’s second-largest city. The mayor, Wilmar Innocent, has said 180 police were protecting the city, but it wasn’t clear if they were responding to the attack.
In recent days, frightened officers bolted themselves in behind the walled compound of their police station, and told reporters they had neither the firepower nor the numbers to repulse the rebels. That had left control in the hands of Aristide loyalists who have torched their opponents’ homes and terrorized the population. On Saturday, they shot and wounded a Haitian journalist.
The rebels have captured several towns in Haiti’s north since they rose up on Feb. 5. The uprising has killed about 60 people, about two-thirds of them police.
The rebel attack puts added pressure on politicians negotiating a U.S.-backed international peace plan that would leave Aristide as president but force him to share power with his political rivals.
A diplomatic delegation left Haiti Saturday night after failing to persuade Aristide’s political opponents to accept the plan, which would require the two sides to share power.
Aristide, who would remain president under the plan, said he agreed to a new prime minister and government to organize elections.
But he declared he would “not go ahead with any terrorists,” meaning he would not negotiate with the rebels.
The opposition politicians are not allied with the rebels, but both want to see Aristide step down. The political opponents met with foreign envoys Saturday and promised to deliver a formal response to the peace proposal by 5 p.m. Monday.
One of the gang leaders who began the rebellion asked where the plan left him.
“What about me? When the international community come into Haiti … they (will) take my gun,” Buteur Metayer told Associated Press Television News in Gonaives, the biggest city held by the rebels. “He (Aristide is) going to kill me.”
Foreign Minister Fred Mitchell of the Bahamas remained optimistic that the opposition could be won over, telling reporters, “While we did not get a yes, we did not get a no.”
The United States has urged citizens to leave the country amid mounting violence by Aristide militants in government-held areas.
Throughout the recent bloodshed, Aristide, who has survived three assassination attempts and a coup d’etat, has said he will not step down before his term ends in 2006.
“Aristide has systematically broken his promises. Why should anyone believe him now?” asked lawyer Bernard Gousse, from a coalition of 184 civil groups in the Democratic Platform coalition.
Aristide accuses his political opponents of supporting the rebellion. His government spokesman, Mario Dupuy, said that with the plan “the opposition has a chance to prove it is not in favor of violence and terrorism.”
Opposition leaders said the plan does not address how to halt the uprising and disarm rebels and militants.