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| Caribbean |
| Group Takes Over City in Haiti; 4 Dead |
| 2004-02-06 |
| EFL: An armed opposition group seized control of Haiti’s fourth-largest city in clashes that killed at least four people, while the government vowed to restore order. Just when did you have order to restore? Members of the Gonaives Resistance Front on Thursday set fire to the mayor’s home in Gonaives, 70 miles northwest of Port-au-Prince, then doused the police station with fuel, lighting it while officers fled, Haitian radio reports said. At least four opponents of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide were killed in gunbattles with police, Gonaives Resistance Front leader Wynter Etienne told Radio Vision 2000. Radio Metropole reported 20 people were wounded and more than 100 inmates were freed from the jail. Only 4 dead and 20 wounded? Sounds like a slow Saturday night in LA. "Gonaives is liberated," Etienne told reporters. "Aristide has to go... We’ve liberated the police station and freed the population" from Aristide’s rule. Etienne said the group aims to take control of other towns. "So that we can oppress the masses, why should Aristide have all the fun." Government spokesman Mario Dupuy said the armed attackers didn’t have the support of most people in Gonaives and linked the unrest to violence in the nearby Central Plateau. The attacks "are terrorist acts undertaken by the armed wing of the opposition," Dupuy said. "The police will have to take measures to re-establish order." There he goes again, you can’t re-establish what you never had. Thursday’s clashes came a day after Bahamas Foreign Minister Fred Mitchell and Colin Granderson, assistant secretary general of the Caribbean Community, concluded talks with the opposition and met separately with Aristide. "Jean, better keep a bag packed." Members of the armed group in Gonaives were once allied with Aristide but turned on him last year after their leader, Amiot Metayer, was found murdered Sept. 22. Metayer had long supported Aristide, but many of his followers now accuse the government of involvement in the killing. Amiot getting a little too popular, was he? Aristide has denied involvement, saying only the opposition stood to gain. "Nope, wasn’t me, it was those other guys." After 29 years of the Duvalier family dictatorship, Aristide, then a slum priest, won presidential elections by a landslide. He was overthrown the next year, then restored in 1994 by a U.S. invasion. He was re-elected in 2000, but has been plagued by political troubles. Opposition leaders have demanded Aristide’s resignation, accusing his government of incompetence and corruption. Aristide has refused to step down before his term ends in 2006 and has defended his government, saying it has made progress despite many obstacles. Unless we have another massive wave of Haitians landing on Florida beaches, I don’t think we should intervene again. It’s a no-win situation. |
| Posted by:Steve |
| #3 I gotta say SH your commentary is undescribable. I'm still laughing my ass off. Go man! |
| Posted by: dataman1 2004-2-6 6:08:47 PM |
| #2 When you say "Haiti" nothing more needs to be said. |
| Posted by: whitecollar redneck 2004-2-6 4:09:22 PM |
| #1 Who would want to take over a Haitian city. I would rather be in charge of emptying the porta jonnies at a Stones concert by oral syphon. |
| Posted by: Super Hose 2004-2-6 11:32:02 AM |