Uprising puts Haiti on edge of collapse

GONAIVES, Haiti -- Police reinforcements fought bloody battles with gunmen as they tried to retake Haiti's fourth-largest city Saturday from rebels who seized it two days earlier in a challenge to President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.

At least three police were killed, and crowds mutilated the corpses. One body was dragged through the street as a man swung at it with a machete. A woman cut off the officer's ear.

Another policeman was lynched and stripped to his shorts, and residents dropped a large rock on his corpse.

Rebels said they killed 14 police officers, Haitian radio stations reported; but the claim could not be confirmed.

The uprising appeared to be spreading. Armed Aristide opponents seized the police station in the west coast town of St. Marc on Saturday, firing into the air and chasing police away, private Radio Kiskeya reported.

Militants also have attacked police stations and forced out police in at least five small towns near Gonaives, Haitian radio reports said. Judge Walter Pierre told private Radio Ginen that armed men were occupying the police station in the town of Anse Rouge on Saturday and had confiscated weapons.

The rebellion had not yet reached Port-au-Prince, the capital, where throngs of government supporters marched Saturday to mark the third anniversary of Aristide's second inauguration.

The U.S. Embassy issued a statement Friday saying it "categorically rejects all violence."

In downtown Miami on Saturday, about 100 Haitians rallied in support of Aristide's ouster, waving Haitian flags and chanting "Aristide must go!" Advocacy groups estimate about 300,000 Haitians live in South Florida.

Political power

Anger has been brewing in Haiti since Aristide's party swept flawed legislative elections in 2000. The opposition refuses to join in any new vote unless Aristide resigns, which he refuses to do before his term ends in 2006.

At least 61 people have been killed in the Caribbean country since mid-September in clashes between police, government opponents and Aristide supporters.

An armed group known as the Gonaives Resistance Front drove police from Gonaives' police station during a five-hour gunbattle on Thursday, then torched the station and other buildings. At least seven people were killed and 20 injured.

About 150 police re-entered Gonaives Saturday morning, ignoring a hail of rocks from protesters and waging gunbattles with armed rebels who hid on side streets and crouched in doorways.

"I'm not a terrorist. I am fighting for the Haitian people," militant leader Wilfort Ferdinand, 27, said from a second-floor balcony, holding an M-16 rifle.

Holding the city

It was unclear how many gunmen were fighting, but on Friday thousands of protesters marched outside Gonaives, vowing to repel any attempt to retake the city, which with its suburbs encompasses about 200,000 people.

One bystander was wounded in the face by a police bullet, and he gushed blood on a hospital gurney while awaiting treatment.

Some gunmen wore the camouflage pants of Haiti's disbanded army, which Aristide eliminated in 1995.

"I am ready to lay down my weapons as soon as Aristide leaves. Gonaives today is in the hands of the Resistance," Ferdinand said. "We are few in number but we have the support of the people."

The group is not asking for money or weapons, only international help in removing Aristide, he said. Ferdinand, known by the nickname Ti-Wil, said Aristide once gave his group weapons to crush the opposition.

The Gonaives Resistance Front used to be allied with Aristide. But the gang turned against Aristide last year and changed its name from the "Cannibal Army," accusing the government of killing its leader Amiot Metayer to keep him from releasing damaging information about Aristide. The government denies it.

A number of people in Gonaives, meanwhile, said they support the militants. Some said they formed neighborhood committees to aid the militants and questioned visitors.

"We have placed our trust in the Gonaives Resistance Front. If the police counterattack, they'll be met with stiff resistance," said Jean Roland, 23.

Police set up a headquarters in a school and returned to the police station where looters took guns Friday.

The gunmen attacked symbols of Aristide's authority on Thursday, freeing prisoners and burning the mayor's home, businesses he owned and another office in Gonaives, 70 miles northwest of Port-au-Prince.

The army ousted Aristide in 1991 during his first term. He was restored in a 1994 U.S. invasion and then disbanded the army.

Former soldiers have been blamed for a series of attacks in the past year that killed at least 25 people in the Central Plateau, east of Gonaives.

Haiti's national security adviser, Dany Fabien, on Friday called the Gonaives attack "the bourgeoisie against the people." He said police would respond said that "the last word belongs to the people."

Police, meanwhile, arrested human rights activist Ketly Julien and three others in the capital Friday, charging them with plotting a coup. The others included former provincial police chief Edouard Petithomme and his wife Rosemarie, a Haitian-American who is a U.S. citizen. They have denied the charges.