Haitian Police, Rebels Clash Over Gonaives

Police reinforcements tried to retake Haiti’s fourth-largest city on Saturday in battles with rebels who seized it three days ago in a challenge to President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.

At least three officers were killed, and crowds mutilated the corpses. Rebels said they killed 14 officers, Haitian radio stations reported, but that could not be confirmed.

The uprising appeared to be spreading Saturday. Aristide opponents seized the police station in the West Coast town of St. Marc, firing into the air and chasing police away, private Radio Kiskeya reported.

Militants also have attacked police stations and forced out officers in at least five small towns near Gonaives, radio reports said. Judge Walter Pierre told private Radio Ginen that armed men occupied the police station in the town of Anse Rouge and confiscated weapons.

The rebellion had not reached Port-au-Prince, the capital, where throngs of government supporters marched Saturday to mark the third anniversary of Aristide’s second inauguration.

Anger has been brewing in Haiti since Aristide’s party swept flawed legislative elections in 2000. The opposition refuses to join in any new vote unless Aristide resigns, which he refuses to do.

At least 61 people have been killed in the Caribbean country since mid-September in clashes among police, government opponents and Aristide supporters.

An armed group known as the Gonaives Resistance Front drove police from Gonaives’ police station during a five-hour gun battle Thursday, then torched the station and other buildings. At least seven people were killed and 20 injured.

About 150 police reentered Gonaives on Saturday morning, ignoring a hail of rocks from protesters and waging gun battles with armed rebels.

Friday thousands of protesters marched outside Gonaives, vowing to repel any attempt to retake the city, which with its suburbs encompasses about 200,000 people.

The army ousted Aristide in 1991 during his first term. He was restored in 1994 and then disbanded the army. Some of the Gonaives gunmen were wearing army uniform pants.