Smoldering human remains littered the city streets as Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide vowed to serve out the rest of his term and condemned an armed uprising that has left at least 47 dead and weakened his hold on the presidency.
Wearing stolen police helmets and carrying looted weapons, rebels patrolled the streets of Gonaives on Wednesday in a search for detractors and government supporters. One accused government hitman was doused with gasoline and set ablaze while another was shot to death.
"I will leave the palace Feb. 7, 2006," Aristide told reporters Wednesday in the first news conference since the uprising began a week ago, skirting the issue of how he planned to put down the insurrection. His officials have said to prevent civilian casualties, any counterattacks must be part of a strategy that could take time to plan.
PHOTO: AFP
In the port city of St. Marc, south of Gonaives, police on Wednesday attacked rebels holed up while gunmen loyal to Aristide torched homes. Photographers saw three dead bodies with bullet wounds to their heads. Witnesses said were anti-Aristide activists.
Aristide's government was due to be tested yesterday when the Democratic Platform, a broad coalition that has distanced itself from the bloody revolt, has called for a massive demonstration for Haitians to show Aristide they no longer want his leadership.
"They suffer from a small group of thugs linked to the opposition ... acting on behalf of the opposition," Aristide said in the capital of Port-au-Prince on Wednesday.
The same rebels who began the uprising say they were once armed by Aristide's government.
The uprising exploded in Gonaives when rebels attacked the police station, torching it and the mayor's house. Winter Etienne, one of several leaders of the rebel Gonaives Resistance Front, said the police station was attacked in response to the killing of five government opponents that day by Aristide loyalists.
"We already have a force hiding in St. Marc, and we also have one hiding in Cap-Haitien. They are awaiting the orders to attack," Etienne said.
In northern Cap-Haitien, attackers looted a food warehouse and pro-Aristide militants set up blazing barricades to protect Haiti's second-largest city. He said the city's residents had backed him to be the new mayor, with other rebel leaders filling in top positions.
The World Food Program reported a looming humanitarian crisis in the north with food delivery trucks unable to make stops because of the barricades. Sporadic electric outages were also reported in Cap-Haitien, which relies on fuel deliveries to power electric generators.
The Gonaives courthouse stood deserted in Gonaives on Wednesday. Government offices were closed. Hospitals were understaffed. Supplies were running low and food prices have risen in Haiti's fourth-largest city because barricades have blocked deliveries.
At a gas station where a scuffle broke out over the last dregs of gasoline, rebels thrust their rifles high in the air and shouted "Get in line! Don't push!"
People with sledgehammers smashed the charred remains of the police station.
Haiti has suffered more than 30 coups in 200 years, the last in 1991 when Aristide was ousted just months after becoming the Caribbean nation's first freely elected leader. Then-US president Bill Clinton sent 20,000 US troops in 1994 to end a military dictatorship, restore Aristide and halt an exodus of Haitian boat people.
US officials say they now are on alert against any new exodus set off by the uprising.
"We are extremely concerned about the wave of violence spreading through Haiti," Scott McClellan, press secretary to US President George W. Bush, said in Washington "We call on the government to respect the rights, especially human rights, of the citizens."
Such comments have angered Haitian officials who note that Washington has not denounced the rebels.
SPEAKING OUT: After Siranudh Scott’s allegations surfaced, celebrities and public figures took to social media to share their own experiences of sexual misconduct and abuse A high-profile alleged sexual abuse case within a wealthy Thai beer brewing family has prompted a wave of painful accounts from survivors of unconnected abuse in the conservative nation. Siranudh Scott, a member of the billionaire Thai family that founded the ubiquitous Singha beer brand, posted an emotional video this month accusing his elder brother Sunit of repeatedly abusing him when he was a teenager. Sunit, who is in his 30s, later denied the allegations in a video posted online, but Singha parent Boonrawd dismissed him from his executive role with the company on Tuesday last week. “I felt I needed to speak
A Hong Kong astronaut is to join a Chinese space mission for the first time as part of a three-person crew launching today, as Beijing edges closer to its goal of landing people on the moon. The Tiangong space station — crewed by teams of three astronauts that are typically rotated every six months — is the crown jewel of China’s space program, boosted by billions in state investment in a bid to catch up with the US and Russia. The Shenzhou-23 mission is to blast off at 11:08pm from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwestern China, carrying three astronauts to
UPGRADED ALERT: The risk inside DR Congo is now considered ‘very high,’ while neighboring countries face a ‘high’ threat as the outbreak continues, the WHO said Ebola is spreading faster than responders can track it in eastern Congo, where health workers managed to follow up with barely one in five identified contacts in a single day. Authorities in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DR Congo) reported 83 confirmed infections, 746 suspected cases and 1,603 identified contacts as of Thursday, but health workers were able to follow up on only 342 contacts that day — about 21 percent of the total under monitoring — data released by the DR Congo Ministry of Public Health on Friday showed. The figures suggest the response is falling behind the outbreak itself,
SEEKING ORDER: Rodrigo Paz said that ‘anyone who wants to destroy the nation will have to deal with this president and the full force of the constitution’ Bolivian President Rodrigo Paz on Wednesday said that the nation was at a “breaking point” after nearly a month of protests that have caused shortages of food, fuel and medicine. Paz, who took office six months ago amid the worst economic crisis there in four decades, is battling a groundswell of fury over his policies. The political capital, La Paz, has been besieged by low-income workers and members of the indigenous majority calling for his resignation. “The country needs order and is reaching breaking point,” the 58-year-old said at a public event in La Paz, renewing his appeal for dialogue. On Tuesday, the Bolivian
RSS