In a setback to opposition forces, only about 1,000 protesters took part Sunday in what had been billed as major rally designed to force embattled President Jean-Bertrand Aristide into resigning from office two years before the end of his term.
Chanting “Aristide must go,” the crowd of students, merchants and others danced and strode down one of the capital city’s thoroughfares before ending the rally 90 minutes later in confusion when some opposition leaders tried to steer the march away from a pro-Aristide neighborhood.
Dozens of radical anti-Aristide students and others pressed on before being stopped by police, who fired gunshots into the air and tear gas to disperse pro- and anti-government militants. The rival groups briefly hurled rocks and Molotov cocktails but there were no reports of serious injuries.
Experts said the small size of the crowd coupled with the continuing insurrection in the Gonaives, the nation’s fourth-largest city, is a blow to opposition leaders in the capital who say they are trying to lead a non-violent movement to oust Aristide.
“They are no longer the real opposition,” said Robert Fatton, a Haiti expert at the University of Virginia. “The real opposition [forces] are the ones with the weapons. The thugs have the initiative now.”
The hemisphere’s poorest nation, with a history of violence and coups, Haiti has been in a state of crisis since flawed legislative elections in 2000. Although Aristide was elected president the same year, his popularity plummeted as the economy faltered and the nation was jolted by political violence.
Violence overtakes ideals
Opposition leaders in the capital have called for non-violent protests to oust the former priest, whom they describe as an authoritarian and corrupt leader out of touch with his humble roots.
But the non-violent opposition has become increasingly irrelevant as armed anti-Aristide gangs have taken over Gonaives and burned police stations in a dozen other towns.
In recent days, a former police chief and a former paramilitary leader with ties to past military dictatorships have joined a gang of armed rebels in Gonaives.
Barricading themselves inside the city, the gunmen in Gonaives–some wearing surplus U.S. Army fatigues and the uniforms of police officers killed in the uprising–carry old M-1 and M-14 rifles and even spear guns as they patrol a city decimated by years of neglect and violence.
Buteur Metayer, leader of the Gonaives front, said last week that his group was preparing to extend its control over much of Haiti. But a government official said during the weekend that police and pro-government civilians repelled a Feb. 7 attack by 60 heavily armed Gonaives gunmen on Cap-Haitien, the nation’s second-largest city.
“They wanted to penetrate Cap-Haitien but they couldn’t do it,” said Myrto Julien, the government delegate for northern Haiti. “The situation is almost under full control.”
Residents say the cost has been high. During the past week, armed pro-government gangs, known as chimeres, or fire-breathing monsters, have set up burning barricades at night and terrorized political opponents in Cap-Haitien, a once picturesque colonial city now scarred by fetid open sewers, piles of garbage and makeshift shacks.
Some opposition members are in hiding. Others cower indoors at night as gunfire rings out, though the shooting has decreased in recent days, according to residents.
“Every night at 6 p.m. the local chimeres insist that we go indoors,” said Franz Jean, an unemployed 30-year-old photographer and opposition supporter. “The minute you are in they start shooting and breaking bottles.”
Jean said he and his family sleep on the floor and in the back of the house to avoid getting hit by gunfire. There are several bullet holes in the facade of his home–evidence, he said, of recent attacks by pro-Aristide civilians.
“I fear for my life,” said Luco Sylvain, a friend of Jean’s and an opponent of Aristide. “If you don’t see eye-to-eye with them then you are targeted.”
Despite allegedly being repelled from Cap-Haitien, the armed Gonaives Resistance Front has retained a stranglehold on the port city of 500,000 by preventing food and fuel from being transported up the main north-south highway.
There has been no electrical power in Cap-Haitien for a week. Many stores are shuttered and gas stations have run out of fuel, though some residents who hoarded gasoline are now selling it out of large plastic drums for more than twice the pre-rebellion price.
Patients turned away
At the local hospital, doctors have had to turn away patients who need complicated surgical procedures because there is little or no gasoline available to run a generator. Phito Alce, a 28-year-old tailor, said he purchased six gallons of gasoline so his brother could receive an operation for a gunshot wound to the stomach.
In the maternity ward, babies were being delivered after dark by the light of key-chain flashlights and kerosene lamps.
Medical intern Farah Momprevil, 27, said one child was stillborn Friday because she was unable to perform an emergency Caesarean section without electricity.
Julien, the government representative in Cap-Haitien, said Sunday that a barge with 150,000 gallons of fuel had just arrived in Cap-Haitien to alleviate the energy crisis.
The shipment is one indication the government may be regaining the initiative after being stunned by the takeover of Gonaives and the severing of the main highway connecting Port-au-Prince to Cap-Haitien.
While refusing to step down, Aristide said Friday that his undercover police had infiltrated Gonaives as a step toward regaining control of the city.
But observers said with only 3,500 poorly trained police at his command, Aristide doesn’t have the firepower to retake Gonaives and was likely to try to isolate the city while maintaining control of Port-au-Prince and the rest of the nation.
Many Haitians said they were hugely disappointed by Aristide’s presidency but expressed little hope their lives would improve even if he were ousted. Others feared that if they openly took sides against the president it could cost them their lives.
“I want the U.S. to come in and get Aristide,” said one woman watching Sunday’s opposition march from behind a gate. Asked to give her name so it could be published with her comment, the women stepped back with a pained expression and waved her arms.
“No. No,” she said. “They will kill us.”
