A rebel force trying to oust President Jean-Bertrand Aristide grew as former exiled paramilitary troops joined the insurrection and aid workers hurried to get doctors and supplies to the north, where barricades have choked off help.
A humanitarian convoy was to leave yesterday from Haiti's capital, Port-au-Prince, for St. Marc, a northern port city where rebels burned the police station and torched a clinic. The Geneva-based International Committee of the Red Cross would be leading the convoy, officials said.
PHOTO: AP
The rebels launched a rebellion on Feb. 5 from Gonaives, 112km northwest of Port-au-Prince. Although the rebels are thought to number less than Haiti's 5,000-member police force, exiled paramilitary leaders and police have reportedly joined them.
Louis-Jodel Chamblain, a former Haitian soldier who headed army death squads in 1987 and a militia known as the Front for the Advancement and Progress of Haiti, or FRAPH, which killed and maimed hundreds of people between 1991 and 1994, was seen in Gonaives by several witnesses. He had fled to the Dominican Republic in the mid-'90s.
Also spotted was Guy Philippe, a former police chief who fled to the Dominican Republic after being accused by the Haitian government of fomenting a coup in 2002.
In the video obtained by Associated Press Television News and shot by a print photographer, Philippe was seen laughing and surrounded by a handful of rebels in Gonaives on Saturday.
Philippe said since fleeing Haiti in 2000, he has been in the Dominican Republic and Ecuador, where he received police academy training and learned English.
Philippe says he's come back to fight for the people and has no political aspirations.
"We don't have any platform," said Philippe, 35. "Our fight is for a better country ... We are fighting for the presidency, we're fighting for the people, for our convictions."
Philippe said the rebels have an arsenal of weapons.
He said he doesn't think it was in US' interests to pursue another intervention.
"We don't want to fight with them," he said. "We are fighting for our own cause."
Two Dominican soldiers were killed on the Dominican border at Dajabon on Saturday and their weapons were taken from them. It was unclear who was responsible for the killings but Chamblain reportedly led a commando of 20 men across the border.
Dominican President Hipolito Mejia said on Sunday that authorities would arrest any Haitian trying to enter the Dominican Republic suspected of taking part in the uprising.
Meanwhile in Jamaica, police detained 10 Haitians, including eight police officers, who arrived on Saturday by boat to Jamaica's eastern shore requesting asylum. Police seized eight guns and some ammunition from the men. Immigration authorities were reviewing their asylum requests.
As the suspense built with the revolt in the north, more than 1,000 anti-government demonstrators held a peaceful march on Sunday.
Shouting "Down with Aristide!" members of a broad opposition alliance known as the Democratic Platform massed for the demonstration in Port-au-Prince, saying they didn't support violence but shared the same goal as the rebels -- ousting the embattled president.
Demonstrators ended the peacful protest about a quarter of the way through when police told them they would have to change the route because of security concerns.
While there has been no reported rise in the numbers of Haitians leaving for US shores, Aristide's wife -- US-born Mildred Trouillot Aristide -- reportedly flew to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, over the weekend. Haitian press liaison Michelle Karshan said the first lady left to attend a funeral and was to return yesterday. The couple has two children.
In another twist, the 13-year-old grandson of Mildred Aristide's aunt and former government social affairs minister, was reportedly kidnapped on Friday, friends of the family told reporters, asking that their names not be used. It was unclear who abducted the boy but there have been reports of at least three other kidnappings since the rebel unrest began.
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