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Background
Haitiís ìarmed oppositionî launched its most lethal offensive yet last week, creating the civil strife that may be used by the US State Department to justify military intervention. On Feb. 10, State Department officials gave their first public hints that they would favor President Jean-Bertrand Aristideís resignation...
Meanwhile, in one of the largest mobilizations in recent years, hundreds of thousands of Haitians marched and rallied in Port-au-Prince on Feb. 7, the anniversary of the 1986 fall of the Duvalier dictatorship, to demand that Aristide fulfill his five-year term, which ends Feb. 6, 2006. Thousands more held similar anti-coup demonstrations in provincial cities. Pro-government popular organizations have begun setting up barricades and taking up arms in the capital and other cities like Jacmel, Cayes and Cap HaÔtien to prevent the spread of the armed oppositionís attacks.
The offensive began on the morning of Feb. 5 when the newly constituted Front of Revolutionary Resistance of GonaÔves (FRRG) attacked that cityís police headquarters with automatic weapons fire and grenades. Many civilians and several policemen were killed in the five-hour gun battle that ensued, although it is not clear how many from numerous conflicting reports. Eventually the police withdrew. The attackers overran the station and freed all the prisoners in jail, ìamong them lots of criminals whom courts had convicted,î said a Feb. 7 police communiquÈ. ìThey looted, burned vehicles, burned the homes of several citizens... and then burned down the police headquarters.î The rebels also burned down the hotel and home of former GonaÔves mayor Stephen Topa MoÔse as well as the offices of the Artibonite Departmentís government representatives, called delegates.
From
The Economist
"...Mr Aristide still seems to face the slow but steady collapse of his rule. If it remains in rebel hands, GonaÔves would be a big loss. It is strategically located on the main road between Port-au-Prince and Cap-HaÔtien. ìWe shall work to form a Republic of the Great North,î said Winter Etienne, the city's self-appointed new mayor, recalling the independence struggle when Haiti was divided between rival kingdoms. That would cut the capital off from the Artibonite Valley, Haiti's most fertile rice-producing region. The World Food Programme, which has its main distribution point in GonaÔves, has given warning that the violence is disrupting its efforts to get food to the poorest rural areas. "
Story continues in
HAITI PROGES
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