Haiti Rebels: Aristide Made Error on Guns

Associated Press ^ | Feb 23, 10:08 PM EST | PAISLEY DODDS

[BenLurkin]

CAP-HAITIEN, Haiti (AP) -- Sitting poolside and fingering assault rifles, rebel leaders bent on ousting Haiti's president said Monday his big mistake was sending them home years earlier with their guns. All three have a vendetta against Jean-Bertrand Aristide.

"We don't want any more bloodshed. We just want Aristide to leave," Guy Philippe told The Associated Press in an interview. He used to be the police chief in Cap-Haitien, Haiti's second-largest city of 500,000 that rebels seized with little resistance on Sunday, the biggest prize in their 18-day revolt.

"I think Cap-Haitien was fairly easy to take," Philippe said. "No one wants to fight for Aristide anymore. We want the people to take advantage of their freedom."

Philippe has relied on guerrilla tactics, following a strategy crafted by ancestors who launched Haiti's revolution to halt slavery from this city two centuries ago.

The rebels, whose size has tripled with new recruits added in each town they seize, have systematically driven enemies out, won over the population and moved onto the next target. They effectively control the north now and the central Artibonite District where more than 1 million people live.

The triumvirate of leaders that has emerged to command a 300-strong rebel force has a vendetta against President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, who in 1995 disbanded the army that had ousted him.

"He made a big mistake sending us home with our guns" said Remissainthe Ravix. "There's no such thing as the former Haitian army now. We have the weapons and the expertise to take the country. Nothing can stop us."

The commanders are Philippe, an Ecuadorian-trained army officer who listens to Motown music, plays ping-pong and is a self-proclaimed ladies' man; Louis-Jodel Chamblain, a leader of a former army death squad accused of killing thousands who has a penchant for gold-rimmed aviator glasses; and Ravix, a muscle-bound ex-army corporal trained in guerrilla tactics.

Their next target is Port-au-Prince, the real prize for the commandoes who plan on arresting Aristide and say Haitian history has taught them how to do it.

It was in the forests outside Cap-Haitien that a former slave named Boukman in 1791 began and uprising that spread throughout the country until the French were driven away 12 years later, their plantations left in smoking ruin. On Monday, smoke billowed from the colonial mansion of Mayor Wilmar Innocent, police stations, the courthouse and other government buildings torched by rebels and residents.

"We have the same blood running through our veins as Boukman, who was fighting for his freedom and fighting for his country's freedom," said the slight and fresh-faced Philippe, 35, reclining on lounge chair at the poolside.

Using the hillside Mont Joli Hotel as their temporary command center, the rank-and-file rebels are told to stay sharp and steer clear of alcohol. The commanders, however, take breaks to sip Prestige, Haiti's national beer, and coordinate their assaults.

Philippe says he hopes to take Port-au-Prince by Sunday, his 36th birthday.

"We don't want any more bloodshed," he said. "We just want Aristide to leave." Some rebels are using the submachine guns, assault rifles and pistols they had in the army. Others have new weapons, some confiscated from police stations, others donated by secret backers.

"We cannot be outgunned," says Chamblain, switching from Creole to Spanish he learned in neighboring Dominican Republic. Some rebels are Haitian-Dominicans. Philippe fled there in 2000 when he was accused of coup-plotting. Chamblain has lived there for eight years. Haiti had convicted him in absentia for his role in a 1994 massacre and the 1993 assassination of Aristide financier Antoine Izmery and sentenced him to life imprisonment.

The rebels have asked for volunteers to keep government services running until they oust Aristide. After that, they want to hold presidential and legislative elections, and say they will not fall back into Haiti's historic pattern of military dictatorships.

"We're not plotting a coup," Chamblain says. "We're plotting to liberate the people."

Many in this city of 500,000 have cheered in support of the rebellion - a sharp contrast to three years ago when the city was an Aristide stronghold.

Some, however, say they rebels are no better than Aristide or any other leader that Haitians have suffered through 32 coups d'etat the 29-year Duvalier family dictatorship.

"It's all the same," said Solomon Ronel, 25. "It's all terrible."

[BenLurkin]

Guns in the hands of the citizenry will always be a bane to dictators.

[bc2]

BTTT, Bang, FYI, etc

[Travis McGee]

A lesson to be learned here.

[dfwgator]

I bet the next Haitian dictator won't make that same mistake.

[Travis McGee]

You mean, you don't think true democracy is about to break out?

[dfwgator]

Let's just say I'm skeptical. Everyone thought Cuba was headed for democracy when Batista was overthrown...yeah right.

[archy]

Let's just say I'm skeptical. Everyone thought Cuba was headed for democracy when Batista was overthrown...yeah right.

There were a lot of good men in with the rebeldes who overthrew Batista; many executed or otherwise *removed* by the Castro brothers as they consolodated power for their dictatorship that followed Batista's.

Commandantes William Morgan and Camilo Cienfuegos come particularly to mind, even to a Yanqui kid who was only around 10 years of age when those events unfolded around him.

My mom and dad thought it would be a swell *learning experience* if I was to accompany my dad, a refinery engineer at the Texaco/CalTex Santa Clara refinery. It was that indeed.

-archy-/-

[Travis McGee]

I forgot the < /sarcasm > tag.

[backhoe]

-Haiti, descending into chaos again--

[BenLurkin]

The would be tyrants in our nation seem to understand. They are just patient and satisfied to disarm us incrementally.

[stylin_geek]

Yes, and this is why the gun grabbers want our guns.