December 17, 2001
INTERNATIONAL
Gunmen Attempt Coup in Haiti
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
The Associated Press
Supporters of Hatian President Aristide look at dead police officers in a police vehicle outside the National Palace in Port-au-Prince.
Filed at 12:05 p.m. ET
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) -- Armed commandos stormed the National Palace on Monday, taking over radio communications and killing at least two policemen and two passers-by before police recaptured the building, officials said.
President Jean-Bertrand Aristide and his wife were unharmed in their suburban home in Tabarre about three miles from the palace, said National Palace spokesman Jacques Maurice. Aristide did not immediately appear on television or radio, and no statement was issued in his name although government officials said he would make a statement later in the day.
Hundreds of his supporters, wielding machetes, surrounded the palace, shouting, ``We'll never accept another coup d'etat.'' Aristide was first elected president in 1990 and stayed in power only eight months before the army ousted him in a coup that began Sept. 30, 1991. He started his second term in February.
In apparent retribution for the palace attack, Aristide supporters torched the headquarters of the Convergence opposition alliance in the capital as well as the headquarters of the National Congress of Democratic Movements, a socialist party that is a member of Convergence.
Mischa Gaillard, a spokesman for the 15-party Convergence, declined to comment on the palace shooting.
Government officials described the attack as an attempted coup, but by midmorning the police retook the palace and the situation was under control, said Guy Paul, Minister of Culture and Communication.
At least six police officers were wounded in the attack, he said. It wasn't immediately clear what happened to gunmen who authorities said had remained inside the palace for hours. Others had reportedly fled earlier.
Before attacking the national palace, the commandoes in three pickups and a jeep attempted to assault the national penitentiary, Maurice said. When they were rebuffed, they then went on to the palace.
The gunmen lobbed a grenade at the National Palace about 2 a.m. and then began firing as they entered, Paul said. They killed two police officers guarding the palace, Maurice said.
The presidential mansion is protected by hundreds of guards, and it was unclear how the gunmen penetrated the security.
``This is an attempted coup d'etat,'' Maurice said. ``This is not a staged event.''
The attackers stole a National Palace radio system and used it to communicate among themselves, some in Creole and others in English and Spanish, Maurice said.
A pickup truck, apparently carrying some of the gunmen, sped out of the palace in the morning and escaped despite the many barricades erected in the capital, according to national radio. The men in the truck shot and killed two passers-by as they fled, the radio report said.
A government official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the attackers identified their leader as the former police chief of northern Cap-Haitien city, Guy Philippe, who fled to the Dominican Republic earlier this year. Philippe's whereabouts weren't immediately clear.
Flaming tire barricades were burning on several corners in downtown Port-au-Prince while cars were diverted away from the palace. Personnel from the U.S. Embassy were told to stay at home.
Since Aristide's Lavalas Family party swept parliamentary and local elections in May 2000, Haiti has been mired in unrest with the main opposition group calling the elections fraudulent and foreign donors refusing to release desperately needed aid until results are revised.
There has also been mounting grass-roots opposition to Aristide within his own party. Protesters have accused Aristide of failing to deliver on promises of basic services such as sanitation and electricity.
Aristide says his mandate has been hampered by lack of aid.
A government communique that aired early Monday on Radio Caraibes called on Haitians to ``block the way, on top and at the bottom'' to anyone who wants to destabilize the government.
Aristide, in a speech to police in June, called for a crackdown on rampant crime, urging ``zero tolerance.''
Human rights group have denounced the slogan, saying some have interpreted it as license to kill thieves and government opponents.
