Febuary 23, 2004 Dear Everybody: Haiti has been in the news a lot recently so I have been receiving many e-mails from worried friends and family. Haiti’s political situation is very complicated because there is no one single opposition. There isn’t even a single “armed” opposition or “non-violent” opposition. I don’t even know where to begin to explain the situation. So far the rebels have chased police out of various cities around the north of Haiti culminating in Cap Haitien yesterday. This morning’s headline was “Rebels Control More Than Half of Haiti”. The CIMO, Haiti’s special police, retook Saint Marc (the town closest to us) about a week ago after rebels took it over on Feb 7. Saint Marc is now the last big city between the rebels and the capital Port au Prince, but it has quite a CIMO presence and they aren’t likely to flee the city. I would like to explain a little bit about how the rebels, only numbering in the hundreds, have managed to chase out the police in half of the country. Haiti has about 8 million inhabitants and only about 4000 police (probably less now). New York City by comparison has about 8 million people and 55,000 police who are well trained and equipped. Haiti has no military at all. Police in Haiti are paid the equivalent of about $103/ month, which doesn’t inspire much loyalty. I personally would need a much larger paycheck before I would agree to fight a rebel army. Safety wise, I am not concerned so much by the advancing rebel army as by the desperate economic situation that is likely to follow. When people become hungry enough, criminal activity could increase substantially and we could become a target. For the time being the community here is in pretty good shape. Tal is back in Canada on a fundraising trip at the moment leaving me here at the mission with Barb McLeod, a brave woman from Abbotsford, B.C. who came to work with street kids in Saint Marc. I am limiting travel as much as possible now, but I made a trip into Port au Prince on Wednesday to pick up Barb at the airport and buy materials for the latest batch of hand pumps we are building for the well drilling program. For the first time ever, I made it into Port au Prince with no traffic, managed to buy every single item we needed and made it out of town again ahead of schedule. I even met some new and interesting people and enjoyed my day. I didn’t even get rear-ended on the road. Thanks to those who have been praying for our safety. The problems in Haiti mean that our work has slowed down quite a bit. Our next filter technician training class has been postponed indefinitely because of worries about travel safety for the students. Also, we had been communicating extensively with the United States Peace Corps to find out how we could work together on water projects. The Peace Corps were withdrawn from Haiti last week, so we won’t be able to work together. I have been told that if the Peace Corps is forced to leave any particular country three times it will not return there and this is their third time leaving Haiti so we won’t see them again. Haiti has one cement factory which isn’t too far from here and is owned by a Columbian company. I was contacted by them about a month ago because they want to start a biosand filter program in the communities surrounding the cement factory in an effort to help the local area. Their program was in the process of being given final approval last week when most of the Columbian staff were removed to Columbia for security reasons. Hopefully their program will be restarted when Haiti calms down again. The slow down in our filter program has meant more time is available to support new technicians as they start their business. I find it encouraging that one man in Saint Marc and another in Gonaives are attempting to start filter businesses right now in spite of the political problems. Daniel from Gonaives arrived here on Saturday to pick up a filter mold. I didn’t even know it was possible to get out of Gonaives (the rebel army capital, as it were) so I was happy to see him. Over the past week I have been concentrating on our well drilling program because it is possible to drill wells locally and avoid travel problems. I have been traveling around to different local communities, assessing their water situation and talking to community leaders about our well drilling program. We will only drill in communities that are committed to taking care of the well when we have finished drilling, so every well requires working extensively with the community. In one place I visited the residents have to walk 30 minutes up a mountain to take water from a spring and carry it down again. They are anxious for us to start drilling. We have tested the new base that we built to add stability to the rig and to contain the driller’s gel that we use to remove the dirt and rock from the hole (see picture). It promises to make well drilling much easier in the future. We have not yet tested the new roller bit we bought for drilling through limestone. I really enjoy getting out in the community to talk to people about wells. The majority of Haitians are very friendly. One woman in an area I visited gave me a kitten for the mission after I mentioned our terrible rodent problem so now we have a new cat named “chatblan”. We still need more missionaries for Clean Water for Haiti but I don’t think I can ask anyone to come out here while Haiti is having so much unrest. We need money for the well drilling program though. Right now we don’t have money to drill wells – I have been working with communities in anticipation of the money that will be coming in. It costs us about $2000 to drill a well and put a pump on it. Thank you for your encouragement, thoughts and prayers. -Chris Rolling Donations to: “Clean Water for Haiti” Clean Water for Haiti C/O Vernon Alliance Church 2602 43rd Avenue Vernon, B.C. V1T 3L1 Canada
Rebels seize Cap-Haitien, Haiti's second-largest city; half of country now under their control By Paisley Dodds SunSentinel February 22, 2004, 8:58 PM EST CAP-HAITIEN, Haiti -- Rebels captured Haiti's second-largest city with little resistance Sunday, claiming Cap-Haitien as their biggest prize in a two-week uprising that has driven government forces from half the country. The fighters fired celebratory rounds as people looted and torched the police station and other buildings. A pall of black smoke hung over the city of 500,000. Flush with victory after the takeover of Cap-Haitien, rebel leader Guy Philippe said he was setting his sights on the capital, Port-au-Prince. "I think that in less than 15 days we will control all of Haiti,'' Philippe said in an interview with two foreign reporters in a Cap-Haitien hotel room as he swigged from a bottle of Prestige beer. As Philippe spoke, his fighters, clad in camouflage uniforms and black flak jackets, sat by the hotel pool in lounge chairs, drinking beer and eating dishes of goat, chicken, rice and beans. Aristide, wildly popular when he became Haiti's first freely elected leader in 1990, has lost support since flawed legislative elections in 2000 that led international donors to freeze millions of dollars in aid. Opponents accuse him of breaking promises to help the poor, allowing corruption fueled by drug-trafficking and masterminding attacks on opponents by armed gangs -- charges the president denies. The rebels say they have no political agenda beyond ousting Aristide, but the man who started the rebellion, Gonaives gang leader Buteur Metayer, on Thursday declared himself the president of liberated Haiti. The rebels have made no effort to install any kind of control, beyond halting a near-riot as people rushed to get food aid in Gonaives on Thursday. In taking Cap-Haitien on Sunday, rebels said their force of about 200 fighters only met resistance at the city's airport, where Philippe said eight militant civilians loyal to President Jean-Bertrand Aristide were killed in a gunbattle. In addition, four bodies were seen on the streets, for a known total death toll of 12 after the day's fighting and mayhem in Cap-Haitien. At least one rebel was wounded. Aristide supporters commandeered a plane from the airport, and witnesses said those who fled on it included seven police officers and former Aristide lawmaker Nawoum Marcellus, whose Radio Africa had been inciting violence against opponents. "We came in today and we took Cap-Haitien; tomorrow we take Port-au-Prince'' the capital, boasted Lucien Estime, a 19-year-old who joined the popular rebellion from the hamlet of Saint Raphael, south of Cap-Haitien. "Our mission is to liberate Haiti,'' he said. The victory leaves more than half of Haiti beyond control of the central government. As that reality set in, panic began spreading Sunday in Port-au-Prince. Sources close to the government told The Associated Press that several Cabinet ministers were asking friends for places to hide in case the capital is attacked. On the highway leading into Port-au-Prince from the north, Aristide partisans set up flaming barricades Sunday to block any rebel advance. In Cap-Haitien, thousands shouting "Aristide fini!'' -- Aristide is finished -- marched along with about 40 rebels in commandeered cars. "We're free!'' people shouted, ripping Aristide posters off walls. Some looted Marcellus' radio station. Then rebels shot up a building and set it ablaze, to applause from the crowd. Reporters saw three bodies on the streets, and doctors said a 12-year-old-girl also was shot and killed. At least one rebel was wounded. Earlier, about 10 armed men stormed the police station and freed about 250 prisoners. The police fled and the prisoners armed themselves, witness Ordil Jean said. Haiti's ill-equipped and demoralized police force of less than 4,000 has been the main target of the insurgents, who have torched a score of police stations since the rebellion erupted Feb. 5. At least 40 officers are among the 70 people killed since then. In the past week, officers have been deserting their posts with no rebels in sight. In Cap-Haitien, police had barricaded themselves behind their walled compound, telling reporters they were frightened and had neither the manpower nor the firepower to repel a rebel attack. As the police headquarters burned on Sunday, teenagers paraded in police hats and body armor. Rebels swigging from beer bottles handed over the keys of cars to residents. People hauled away weapons, typewriters, mattresses, even doors. Thousands of people then converged on the port in a mad scene of looting. People pushed away cars for which they did not have keys and loaded goods onto hand carts. One man packed sacks of rice onto a looted La-Z-Boy reclining chair and trundled it down the street. "We're all hungry,'' said Jean Luc, an 11-year-old who somehow had strapped four 110-pound sacks of rice to a child's bicycle and was precariously trying to pedal it home. Away from the euphoric scene around the rebels, people bolted their doors and fearfully peered out from balconies onto streets littered with bullet casings. Rebel commander Jean-Baptiste Joseph, formerly head of an association of ex-soldiers, declared Haiti's disbanded army had liberated Cap-Haitien. "It's the army that's in charge here. It's the army that will free Haiti.'' He confirmed the attackers were led by Philippe, a former police chief who has threatened for days to attack Cap-Haitien. Also in town was Louis-Jodel Chamblain, co-leader of an army death squad that killed hundreds. Philippe also was an officer in the army when it ousted Aristide in 1991 and instigated a reign of terror until the United States sent 20,000 troops in 1994 to end the military dictatorship and halt an exodus of boat people to Florida. The United States, which blames Aristide for the crisis, has made clear it has no appetite for a new military adventure in Haiti. Instead, diplomats on Saturday presented a U.S.-backed peace plan that was accepted by the beleaguered Aristide but resisted by the opposition coalition Democratic Platform, which says any plan must include Aristide's resignation. Sunday's rebel victory increases pressure on the political opposition to agree to a peace plan. It has said it will respond formally by 5 p.m. Monday. "This is their last chance. If they say no, they are saying no to the international community,'' a senior Western diplomat said on condition of anonymity in Port-au-Prince, where diplomats were ratcheting up the pressure. Still, that diplomat conceded there seemed only a "slim possibility'' they would concede. "We expect the international community to understand our position... which will not change,'' said Gerard Pierre-Charles, a leading opposition leader once allied with Aristide. Under the plan, Aristide would remain president with diminished powers, sharing with political rivals a government that would organize elections.
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