In the strongest challenge yet to embattled President Jean-Bertrand Aristide in Haiti, rebels in nearly a dozen towns went on a rampage that has left at least 42 killed and prompted fears of a coup d'etat.
After sporadic gunbattles yesterday, police regained control of the important port city of St Marc, 45 miles west of Port-au-Prince. At least two men were shot and another was allegedly shot and killed by Aristide supporters. His body was left on a roadside.
In Port-au-Prince, the capital, a coalition opposition political parties met to discuss whether they should join the rebels. By late last night, they had distanced themselves from the uprising.
|
"We do not recognize ourselves in the armed insurrection but in the peaceful struggle of the people for democracy," said Mr Mischa Gaillard, an opposition politician who met with others in the Democratic Platform late yesterday. "We deplore violence."
The uprising, which began Thursday in Haiti's fourth-largest city of Gonaives, signals a dangerous turning point in Haiti's three-year political crisis.
A similar revolt in 1985 also began in Gonaives and led to the ousting the following year of the 29-year Duvalier family dictatorship.
"We are in a situation of armed popular insurrection," said opposition politician Mr Himler Rebu, who led a failed coup against Lt Gen Prosper Avril in 1989.
Tension has mounted since Mr Aristide's party won flawed legislative elections in 2000 and international donors blocked millions of dollars in aid.
Misery has also deepened with most of the nation's eight million people living without jobs and on less than $1 day despite election promises from Aristide, a former priest who had vowed to bring dignity to the poor.