WARNING: This is Version 1 of my old archive, so Photos will NOT work and many links will NOT work. But you can find articles by searching on the Titles. There is a lot of information in this archive. Use the SEARCH BAR at the top right. Prior to December 2012; I was a pro-Christian type of Conservative. I was unaware of the mass of Jewish lies in history, especially the lies regarding WW2 and Hitler. So in here you will find pro-Jewish and pro-Israel material. I was definitely WRONG about the Boeremag and Janusz Walus. They were for real.
Original Post Date: 2004-02-23 Posted By: Jan
From the News Archives of: WWW.AfricanCrisis.Org
Date & Time Posted: 2/23/2004 3:42:09 PM
U.S. Marines in Haiti to Protect Embassy
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) – Militant government loyalists set up flaming barricades Monday to block the road into the Haitian capital, and 50 U.S. Marines were flown in to protect the American Embassy and diplomats. Rebels threatened to attack the city soon.
Frightened Cabinet ministers were asking friends for places to hide, senior government sources said, as the rebels, bolstered by having seized Haiti’s second-largest city, Cap-Hatien, hit two police stations outside the capital.
With rifles drawn, 20 Marines in combat gear and helmets ran off the U.S. Air Force transport plane at Toussaint Louverture International Airport for transport to the city.
In Cap-Haitien, the northern port, rebels hunted down militants loyal to President Jean-Bertrand Aristide and residents went on a rampage of reprisals and looting that began after rebels seized the city of 500,000 people with little resistance on Sunday.
Rebel leader Guy Philippe said his men could do nothing to stop the looting, and blamed Aristide’s government for leaving most of Haiti’s 8 million people hungry and desperate.
Looters stole the 800 tons of food at the U.N. World Food Program warehouse, according to the agency’s Andrea Bagnoli, and set fire to the balconied colonial mansion of pro-Aristide Mayor Wilmar Innocent.
Aristide’s Premier Yvon Neptune said the international community must help save Haiti from “terrorists that are sowing violence and death,” but he did not ask for peacekeepers.
Neptune appealed to the political opposition coalition to agree to a U.S.-backed international peace plan, saying “We ask the Democratic Platform to follow the example of President Aristide’s self-sacrifice and accept the proposal of the international community.
“We are a country under international terrorist threat. … The international community must assume responsibility to help Haiti cope.”
Haiti’s political opposition has said it would formally respond by 5 p.m. Monday to the plan, but leaders indicated earlier in the day that they would not agree to any proposal that does not require Aristide to step down.
Aristide accepted the plan on Saturday. It allow him to remain president with diminished powers, sharing authority with rivals until elections are elections.
“Jean-Bertrand Aristide is at the center of the violence. He must not remain in power,” Evans Paul, a leading opposition politician once allied with Aristide, told a news conference.
France urged its citizens Monday to leave Haiti.
The United States and Mexico told their citizens to get out last week. There are about 30,000 foreigners in Haiti, including about 20,000 Americans, 2,000 French and 1,000 Canadians.
Rebel leader Philippe, feted in Cap-Haitien by thousands who marched Monday in favor of the popular uprising, said Port-au-Prince was his next target. Cap-Haitien is just 90 miles north of Port-au-Prince, but it is a grueling seven-hour drive over bad roads.
“I think that in less than 15 days we will control all of Haiti,” Philippe said.
Sunday’s victory in Cap-Hatien means more than half the country now is beyond the control of the central government. The takeover of the northern port by just 200 rebel fighters was the most significant victory since the popular uprising began on Feb. 5. At least 17 were killed in Sunday’s fighting, raising the toll to about 70 dead and dozens wounded.
On Monday, rebels searched Cap-Haitien for Aristide militants accused of terroring the population in the days before the city fell.
“I am a brick mason, I didn’t do anything wrong,” Jean-Bernard Prevalis, 33, pleaded as he was dragged away, head bleeding.
“We’re going to clean the city of all ‘chimeres,'” said rebel Dieusauver Magustin, 26. Chimere, which means ghost, is used to describe hardcore Aristide militants.
It was not clear what would happen to those detained. One rebel said they were saving them from lynching. But another, Claudy Philippe, said “The people show us the (chimere) houses. If they are there we execute them.”
Thousands of people demonstrated in favor of the rebellion Monday, chanting “Aristide get out!” and “Goodbye Aristide.”
The rebels cut cellular telephone service in the city, saying they wanted no communication with Port-au-Prince.
Aid agencies have warned a humanitarian catastrophe is brewing, with 268,000 people who depended on food aid in northern Haiti being the most vulnerable.
In Port-au-Prince, hundreds of armed Aristide supporters set up more than a dozen barricades on the road leading north, near the international airport. Their unease was evident as they banged on a car with rifle butts and waved shotguns and pistols at vehicles to force them to stop.
“We are ready to resist, with anything we have – rocks, machetes,” said a teacher guarding one roadblock, who gave his name only as Rincher.
Aristide was wildly popular when he became Haiti’s first freely elected leader in 1990 but he has lost support since flawed legislative elections in 2000 led international donors to freeze millions of dollars in aid.
Opponents accuse the former priest 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.
Philippe said he wanted to see Aristide thrown into jail and put on trial, although he did not know what charges the leader would face.
Philippe 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.
Associated Press reporters Paisley Dodds and Mark Stevenson contributed to this report from Cap-Haitien and Port-au-Prince.
Source: Drudge Report
URL: http://apnews.myway.com/article/20040223/D80T…br>