Unrest Spreads Across Haiti

AFP, AP, International Herald Tribune

Unrest spreads across Haiti

 

 MARC, Haiti Violent opposition to President Jean-Bertrand Aristide spread across Haiti on Sunday, with protesters setting barricades ablaze and rebels in control of an unknown number of cities. Hundreds of Haitians looted television sets, mattresses and sacks of flour Sunday in the coastal town of St. Marc, one of several communities seized by armed rebels in the bloody uprising against Aristide.

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Using felled trees, flaming tires and car chassis, residents blocked the streets into St. Marc, a day after rebels drove out the police in gun battles that killed two people.

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Flaming barricades were set in roads in the capital, Port-au-Prince, while an opposition protest march was canceled over security fears.

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News media reports said that burning barricades had also been erected in Cap-Haïtien and that the police station in Grand-Goave, west of the capital, had been burned down after an attack by opponents of Aristide.

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At least 18 people have been killed since armed rebels began their assault four days ago, setting police stations on fire and driving officers from the key city of Gonaïves along the Caribbean Sea and several smaller nearby towns.

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Gonaïves was the site of the bloodiest fights of recent days. At least nine people were killed on Saturday when 150 police officers tried to retake control of the city; they were driven out in gun battles with rebels hiding on side streets and

crouched in doorways.

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Crowds mutilated and beat the corpses of three police officers.

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Rebels continued to rule the streets of Gonaïves on Sunday, though it was unclear how many armed militants were the city of 200,000, Haiti?s fourth-largest.

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Anger has been brewing in Haiti since Aristide?s party won flawed legislative elections in 2000. The opposition refuses to join in any new vote unless the president resigns; he insists on serving out his term, ending in 2006.

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Clashes between government opponents and the police and Aristide supporters have killed at least 69 people since mid-September, when political violence erupted. @(AP, AFP)

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Calling the violence acts of terrorism, the government has vowed to regain control of Gonaïves, but it was unclear when the police planned to return.

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Militants have attacked police stations in at least five small towns near Gonaïves since Friday, Haitian radio reports said. Judge Walter Pierre told Radio Ginen, a private station, that armed men were occupying the police station in the town of Anse Rouge on Saturday.