Arisitide Backers Threaten Beheadings in Haiti After UN Troops Arrest Dozens

October 6, 2004

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) - Enraged supporters of ousted Haitian president Jean-Bertrand Aristide armed themselves with machetes, guns, rocks and bottles and roamed a downtown slum in the capital, threatening to behead foreigners after UN troops and Haitian police arrested dozens of people Wednesday.

As gunfire crackled and two helicopters roared overhead, UN troops in armoured personnel carriers moved into the Bel Air slum, trying to put down a campaign by Aristide loyalists who have carried out a number of gory beheadings in imitation of Iraqi insurgents.

Wednesday morning, the headless body of a man lay in the street in La Salines, a seaside slum facing Port-au-Prince port. A convoy of UN troops drove around the body. No head was in sight.

Three police officers were decapitated last week when Aristide supporters stepped up protests demanding his return from exile in South Africa and launched Operation Baghdad.

One angry man in Bel Air on Wednesday thrust a gun into the face of a reporter, yelled expletives against President George W. Bush and UN troops, then screamed: "We are going to kidnap some Americans and cut off their heads."

Protesters also have been demanding an end to "the invasion" - referring to U.S. marines who flew in the day Aristide left in February and U.N. troops who replaced them in June.

At least 19 people have been killed in the violence in Port-au-Prince, which relief workers said could paralyse attempts to feed tens of thousands of hungry survivors in the northwestern port city Gonaives, which was devastated by floods from tropical storm Jeanne last month.

At least 46 people have been treated for gunshot wounds since Friday at Port-au-Prince General Hospital, said a clerk who didn't want her name used. She said the hospital usually treats one or two wounded people a day.

Aristide loyalists blocked streets throughout Bel Air with torched cars and other debris, just blocks from the National Palace. UN troops and Haitian police surrounded the district Wednesday, searching cars and people at checkpoints, while making arrests in the slum.

Police spokeswoman Jesse Coicou said 75 people were detained for questioning during the sweep of Bel Air but officials said no weapons were found.

"They were all bandits...They had been firing at police," police director Renan Etienne said.

UN spokesman Toussaint Kongo-Doudou said it appeared weapons had been hidden.

Troops and police withdrew from Bel Air late Wednesday morning, leaving deserted streets to men and boys armed with machetes, guns, knives, bottles and stones. They lit bonfires to block roads with torched cars, tires, mattresses and furniture.

"We demand Aristide's return," they said.

Interim prime minister Gerard Latortue - whom protesters have also threatened to behead - accused pro-Aristide street gangs of instigating the violence. Aristide supporters said the police started it by firing at unarmed protesters.

On Tuesday, a dozen young men and children in Bel Air shot a man and tried unsuccessfully to hack off his head, accusing him of spying for rebels who overthrew Aristide, said Ninger Napoleon, a reporter for Radio Antilles who watched the scene.

Rebel commander Ravix Remissainthe told Radio Metropole the man was an ex-soldier.

Aid workers said the violence threatened to handicap flood-relief efforts aimed at Gonaives.

Anne Poulsen of the UN World Food Program said the unrest had scared away workers from the capital's port, where 135 containers with 2,200 tonnes of food were stuck.

As the port remained closed, Poulsen said the World Food Program had asked UN troops to provide security "so we don't break the pipeline of aid going into Gonaives."

Some 750 of the 3,000 UN troops in Haiti are tied up protecting relief supplies and food distribution to storm victims in Gonaives.

At least 1,870 were killed by tropical storm Jeanne, which drenched northwestern Haiti for 30 hours beginning Sept. 17. Some 884 people were reported missing, most presumed dead.

In Gonaives, food aid has failed to reach thousands who are too weak, sick or old to stand in rowdy food lines. More than 100,000 remain hungry, the International Federation of Red Crescent and Red Cross Societies said.

Saint Amise Dorcelue said she has tried and failed four times to obtain food for herself and her five boys. Six-months pregnant, Dorcelue was left penniless after her husband died trying to save his fishing boat during Jeanne.

"I'm hungry, too, but I can't fight or my baby might get hurt," the barefoot 30-year-old said, patting her stomach.

Gonaives had never recovered from a February rebellion that began when a street gang torched government buildings, released jailed criminals and forced police to flee. Dozens of people were killed.

Organization of American States Secretary General Miguel Angel Rodriguez made a one-hour visit to Gonaives on Wednesday, touring a clinic and meeting with aid workers and UN troops.

"The most important thing is to keep the help coming with food and the health situation," he said after arriving by helicopter with Haitian Interior Minister Herard Abraham.

Rodriguez said the OAS and the World Bank will soon begin a $30-million US environmental project to help ease flooding. More than 98 per cent of Haiti is deforested - because people chop trees for charcoal - leaving denuded hills that water easily runs off.

After his Gonaives visit, Rodriguez left for the capital to meet with Latortue.

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