- Thousands of students calling for the resignation of
President Jean-Bertrand Aristide clashed with police and armed thugs yesterday
in a day of violence that once again brought anarchy to the streets of
the Haitian capital.
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- Drink and drug-fuelled mobs of Aristide supporters roamed
the streets of the capital, Port-au-Prince, into the night, setting up
barricades, intimidating onlookers and flaunting their weapons in the hope
of muzzling a groundswell of demands for the government's overthrow.
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- The thugs, known as "the Monsters", shut down
most of the capital, chanting "Aristide for king" and screaming
"This is a war between the dark and light-skinned" at passers-by
as they gathered in front of the presidential palace to the accompaniment
of voodoo drums.
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- Pulling drivers out of their vehicles to rough them up
and steal their cars, their only saving grace was their poor marksmanship.
One hoodlum who took aim with his revolver at the car in which I was travelling,
missed from 10 yards.
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- Heavily armed police patrolling the city did nothing
to stop the mayhem. Law and order had all but broken down even before the
latest surge of violence. Haiti can field only 5,000 policemen to control
its 8 million people.
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- To maintain his grip on power, Mr Aristide and his allies
have been forced to rely on "the Monsters", thugs mostly recruited
from the slums.
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- The demonstrating students, terrified by their brutality,
were forced to take to the hills above the city, marching through alleys
to avoid the mobs.
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- "Things can still happen fast here," Andy Apaid,
a key opposition leader, said yesterday. "This can still be delayed
but it will take a lot of killing to do so and prompt the downfall of his
regime."
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- Today's demonstrations were the most violent of a week-long
wave of protests by up to 10,000 students that has been moving through
the streets of Port-au-Prince.
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- Behind the unrest aiming to unseat Mr Aristide, the former
priest who once inspired support across the country, lies the same voodoo
cult that fuelled the slaves of Haiti to rout Napoleon's armies and win
their freedom 200 years ago.
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- The black cross of the Baron, Master of the Dead and
Keeper of the Cemeteries, that was carried at the head of the student demonstrations
symbolises their readiness to die for their cause - a readiness which may
soon be put to the test as the country plunges into new bloodshed and violence.
-
- Haiti is still the poorest country in the Americas and
the Port-au-Prince slums offer an image of destitution so complete that
the late Mother Theresa called them "the Fifth World".
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- The spectacular upsurge in strife has been aggravated
by Mr Aristide's campaign to mark the bicentenary of Haiti's founding with
fanfare and celebrations.
-
- The anniversary marks the occasion when a slave insurrection,
freeing the colony from French rule, gave the world its first black republic.
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- Haiti's more recent past has seen US occupation, the
reign of terror of the Duvaliers and their "Tontons Macoutes"
secret police, coups and death squads.
-
- Nowhere is Mr Aristide's weakened status more visible
than in Gonaives, where Haiti declared its independence on January 1, 1804.
Monuments to the date have been smashed up and its slums are under the
control of the so-called "Cannibal Army".
-
- Tyres burn on the streets, pigs snuffle through barricades
of rubbish built to keep the police at bay and even "Rosie's",
a local brothel, has been shot up.
-
- Sporting red neckerchiefs which endow them, so they think,
with the mystical power to dodge harm and sprinkling a special voodoo eau
de toilette as they march, the "Cannibals" scream for revenge
against Mr Aristide.
-
- Although ordained as a Catholic priest, Mr Aristide,
50, is only too aware of the power of voodoo beliefs. In a populist bow
to the masses he has declared it an official religion.
-
- Many Haitians still assume that, as the survivor of numerous
past assassination attempts and coups, he has mystic powers himself.
-
- Even voodoo may not save him now. While the "Cannibal
Army" will spoil the bicentenary only in Gonaives, the student demonstrations
could yet sweep aside his rule.
-
- "The streets are hot. Aristide is in trouble,"
the demonstrators chanted as they jogged through the streets. "We
are not afraid. We will never fear."
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- Some former cronies, several of them with distinctly
unsavoury pasts of their own, are deserting their president. One ex-ally
predicted that he is destined for "death, prison, or, at best, exile".
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- Nor can he depend on the inhabitants of the slums who
were once his disciples and believed he could deliver them from a life
little better than animal.
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- "Death is all I see for my children," said
Marie Medesin, the mother of nine, as she surveyed the shacks built among
rubbish tips and open sewers that are home to her and hundreds of thousands
of others in the city.
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- So desperate is the situation in the slums that a dead
body, clearly the result of some violent confrontation between gangs, lay
unclaimed, and almost unnoticed, for hours.
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- The softly spoken president seems convinced that he and
only he can save the country from total ruin. "What we have been through
in recent years would be enough to make any other president unable to govern,"
he said.
-
- Often criticised for trying to run the country like a
parish priest, he pleaded for "dialogue" and "conciliation"
at a press conference this week.
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- But within 24 hours, "the Monsters", were running
wild on the streets outside, trying to stone foreign journalists and shooting
up opposition radio stations.
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- "I dare someone to come into my position and keep
both the rich and poor happy," he said during a press conference which
ended with him, like a caring vicar after a Sunday service, shaking hands
with each journalist as they left.
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- He may have spoken too soon. Someone may take him up
on the challenge earlier than he thinks. But no one can relish taking over
a country with such a turbulent past where half the population is illiterate
and one in 20 have Aids.
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- © Copyright of Telegraph Group Limited 2003.
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