Rebels Seize Haiti's Second-Largest City

[DuctapeFatwa]

Rebels captured Haiti's second-largest city with little resistance Sunday, claiming Cap-Haitien as their biggest prize in a two-week uprising that has driven government forces from half the country.



The fighters fired celebratory rounds as people looted and torched the police station and other buildings. A pall of black smoke hung over the city of 500,000.



Flush with victory after the takeover of Cap-Haitien, rebel leader Guy Philippe said he was setting his sights on the capital, Port-au-Prince.

http://www.journalnet.com/articles/2004/02/22/ap/Headlines/d80slnm00.txt

[lostnfound]

1. KPFT live from Haiti tonight: rebels control northern half of Haiti

On the program called Sunday Monitor they had a live interview with a reporter in Haiti, who made the statement that 'rebels basically control northern half of Haiti as of today'.

[DuctapeFatwa]

2. "We wonder how they could cross border w/out complicity of RD army"

The Haitian government Wednesday asked the Dominican troops to explain why they allowed those Haitians to enter the border area,according to reports from Port-au-Prince, capital of Haiti.

"We wonder how they could cross the border without the complicity of the Dominican army," spokesman of the Haitian government Mario Dupuy said in Port-au-Prince.

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2004-02/20/content_1323443.htm

[lostnfound]

11. How handy the Dominicans have those M16s courtesy of US taxpayers, too nt

[DuctapeFatwa]

3. "For myself, I don't think Bush is my enemy"

"For myself, I don't think Bush is my enemy, but he'll be more of my friend when he takes Aristide away," - Buteur Metayer, Haitian rebel leader

http://haitipundit.typepad.com/

[DuctapeFatwa]

4. Rebels to take Port Au Prince tomorrow

The rebels said they would be in Port-au-Prince, the capital, on Monday.

The rebel force, with about 200 fighters armed with automatic weapons and riding in a convoy of 11 jeeps, met little resistance from the police or armed government supporters, according to Paulda Petime, a 23-year-old commander.
.
In the square, hundreds of people cheered as the police headquarters was set ablaze. Looters made off with battered file cabinets, riot shields, bed frames and rolled up mattresses.
.
"We came here to liberate them," Petime said, referring to the crowds. He added that the people had helped the rebels. "I am really proud of all of the people of Cap-Haïtien," he said.
.
Petime said rebels were massing elsewhere to move on Port-au-Prince.
.
"We will be in the palace on Monday," he said..

http://www.iht.com/articles/130761.html

[whatelseisnew]

12. Is KPFT a bay area Pacifica station?

[papau]

5. 12 cars/trucks with guys with guns and old army training - a bit like

the Michigan militia took over the US.

Seems the US is looking forward to their take over - but France might land a few hundred troops and stop it.

I thought the rich of Haiti had raped and stolen everything - down to and including the forest - already -

so why do the rich in the US want friendlies back in charge now?

Granted the Priest dictator gone power mad should be replaced - but not by these guys. As usual- as in Venezuela - the not too good a leader has more than 50% support because of massive support of the poor

[DuctapeFatwa]

7. Unless the US wants it to expand the Guantanamo project, I think

that the primary interest of the bush regime is to reduce the number of Haitians.

[mobuto]

13. ???

I have no idea what that's supposed to mean.

[I AM SPARTACUS]

8. ...it might not be that the rich in the US want something...

...it seems more likely the misunderstimadministration has agreed to look the other way while the 13-odd families that own everything in Haiti re-take the presidency.

Agreement to look the other way - now, that might leave the semblance of a paper-trail of the campaign-contribution-sort...

[papau]

9. sigh - I suspect you are correct.

:-(

[lostnfound]

10. And then US gov can laud a Haitian armed coup as 'a triumph of democracy'

like they did with Venezuela..

[bemildred]

6. Aristide sends in reinforcements

This is soooo Alice-in-Wonderlandy.

PRESIDENT Jean Bertrand Aristide today said he was sending
reinforcements to Haiti's second-largest city, Cap-Haitien, after
armed rebels took over, left and then promised to return.

Aristide made his announcement as he opened a week-long carnival.
He gave no further detail.

---

Saint-Marc, with a population of about 160,000, lies between
Gonaives and Port-au-Prince, which the rebels -- who claim to have
more than 700 men in arms, most of them former soldiers from the
army that Aristide dissolved in 1995 after a coup - have also
threatened.

The insurgents' strategy since earlier in the month has tended to be to
attack cities, drive out the police, burn police stations and then
swiftly withdraw. Highly mobile, they then come and go to keep an
eye on towns that have fallen to them.

The Australian