February 23, 2004
Photo: Feb. 22, 2004, Rebels on Sunday seized the government's last major bastion in the north, Cap-Haitien, shooting off celebratory rounds in the air as people looted and several torched buildings sent a pall of black smoke over the city. (AP Photo/Walter Astrada)
CAP-HAITIEN, Haiti — Rebels overran Haiti's second-largest city in their biggest victory of a bloody uprising and said they would attack the capital soon in their campaign to oust President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.
As thousands of looters emptied some shops and homes in Cap-Haitien Sunday, rebel leader Guy Philippe predicted a quick victory over Aristide's partisans, who had erected flaming barricades on the highway into the capital, Port-au-Prince.
"I think that in less than 15 days we will control all of Haiti," Philippe said at a Cap-Haitien hotel as he drank from from a bottle of beer.
Sources close to the government said several Cabinet ministers in Port-au-Prince were asking friends for places to hide should the capital be attacked by anti-government protesters.
On Monday, France urged its citizens to leave Haiti.
"We are convinced that all those who have no purpose for being there should not stay," said Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin on RMC-Info radio.
He did not indicate if France had plans to evacuate its nationals. About 2,000 French citizens live in Haiti, mostly in Port-au-Prince, according to French officials.
Photo: Masked anti-Aristide demonstrators hold rocks on a street corner in Port-Au-Prince. Some 30 demonstrators clashed with police during the protest. Elsewhere in Haiti, hooded, heavily-armed rebels seized control of the country's second-largest city, Cap-Haitien, as diplomats stepped up pressure on the unarmed political opposition to drop demands for embattled President Jean Bertrand Aristide's ouster(AFP/Jaime Razuri)
The political opposition has said it will respond by 5 p.m. Monday to a U.S.-backed peace plan that calls for Aristide to remain president while sharing some power with rivals until new elections are organized.
After protesters drove police from Cap-Haitien, a city of 500,000 on Haiti's north coast, thousands of people went on a looting spree.
The takeover of Cap-Haitien by about 200 fighters was the most significant advance by Aristide's opponents since the uprising began Feb 5. At least 15 people died in Sunday's fighting.
More than 70 people have been killed since the start of the rebellion.
The two-pronged rebel assault quickly engulfed key points in Cap-Haitien. The police station was burned, then looted, as was a pro-Aristide radio station. Thousands of people rushed to the port and carted off goods.
"We're all hungry," said Jean Luc, 11, who strapped four huge sacks of rice to his bicycle and was trying to pedal it home.
Residents also defaced posters of Aristide, who was wildly popular when he became Haiti's first freely elected leader in 1990 but lost support after flawed legislative elections in 2000 led international donors to freeze millions of dollars in aid.
Opponents accuse him of failing to help those in need in the Western hemisphere's poorest country, allowing corruption and masterminding attacks on opponents by armed gangs. Aristide denies the charges.
The rebels say they have no political agenda beyond ousting Aristide, but the man who started the rebellion, Gonaives gang leader Buteur Metayer, on Thursday declared himself the president of liberated Haiti.
Rebels have now driven government forces from half the country. As Cap-Haitien stood on the brink of falling, police stayed barricaded in their posts, saying they lacked the personnel and firepower to fend off the insurgents.
Many people expressed joy at the rebel victory.
"The people are happy. Finally we're free from terror," said Fifi Jean, 30, as she stood in front of the blazing police headquarters, which was burned after the police fled amid the rebel assault. As night fell, fires broke out in the homes of some Aristide supporters in Cap-Haitien.
As the rebel leader predicted victory, his fighters, clad in camouflage uniforms and black flak jackets, sat by the hotel pool in lounge chairs, drinking beer and eating plates of goat, chicken, rice and beans.
Philippe said he wanted to see Aristide thrown in jail and put on trial, although he did not know what charges the country's leader would face, saying it would be up to Haitian judges.
The rebel leader was an officer in the army when it ousted Aristide in 1991 and instigated a reign of terror that ended in 1994 when the United States sent 20,000 troops to end the military dictatorship and restore the president to power.
In taking Cap-Haitien, rebels said their force only met resistance at the airport, where Philippe said eight civilians loyal to Aristide were killed in a gunbattle. Seven other bodies were seen Sunday in Cap-Haitien. At least one rebel was wounded.
Aristide supporters commandeered a plane from the airport, and witnesses said those who fled on it included seven police officers and former Aristide lawmaker Nawoum Marcellus, whose Radio Africa had been inciting violence against opponents.
"We came in today and we took Cap-Haitien; tomorrow we take Port-au-Prince," boasted Lucien Estime, a 19-year-old who joined the popular rebellion from the hamlet of Saint Raphael, south of Cap-Haitien. "Our mission is to liberate Haiti."
The United States blames Aristide for the crisis and has said it does not want to send troops to restore order.
The opposition coalition Democratic Platform insists any plan must include Aristide's resignation.
Aristide accepted the plan, but indicated he would not negotiate with the soldiers who had ousted him in 1991.
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