Warriors In Haiti Launch Operation "Baghdad"

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PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti - Supporters of ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide wielded machetes and threatened to cut off the heads of Haitian police and the interim prime minister during demonstrations on Monday, part of a recent campaign that has been dubbed "Operation Baghdad."


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No violence was reported in Monday's demonstrations in the capital Port-au-Prince. But at least 14 people were killed in clashes Thursday and Friday, including three police officers who were shot to death and then beheaded.


Tensions erupted into violence in the capital last week as the country was still reeling from the chaotic aftermath of Tropical Storm Jeanne. The death toll from the storm's devastating floods and mudslides rose Monday to 1,870 with another 884 reported missing and most presumed dead.


About 150 Aristide supporters demonstrated on Monday and some directed their anger at Haitian police who fired in the air to try to disperse a gathering. Using torched cars, protesters blocked roads leading into the downtown slum of Bel Air.


"We'll be in the streets until death or Aristide comes back," said Milo Fenelon, a 24-year-old demonstrator. "We won't stop. If they come in here, we're going to cut off their heads. It's going to be just like Baghdad."


Though many demonstrators on Monday were unarmed, some wore masks and carried machetes and rocks. At least two had guns — a rifle and a homemade shotgun. Some burned a tire, sending acrid smoke into the air.


"We will fight until the return of Aristide," said Georges Jean, a 33-year-old mechanic. "We can also cut off Latortue's head," he said of Interim Prime Minister Gerard Latortue.


Tensions were also high with U.N. peacekeepers guarding the nearby National Palace, but no violence was reported.


Latortue, who is leading a U.S.-backed transitional government installed after Aristide's ouster in February, said the police killings last week were part of an offensive by pro-Aristide gangs dubbed "Operation Baghdad."


He told reporters Sunday night Haiti is seeing "a climate of terror" resembling "the four months preceding Jean-Bertrand Aristide's departure."


Now in exile in South Africa, Aristide has accused U.S. agents of kidnapping him and forcing him out of the Caribbean country on Feb. 29 amid a bloody rebellion — a charge the U.S. government denies.


Aristide, who became Haiti's first freely elected president in 1990, was restored to power by U.S. troops in 1994, then stepped down due to U.S. pressure and a term limit. He was re-elected in 2000.


Aristide's Lavalas Family party on Thursday began commemorating the 1991 coup. They demanded an end to "the occupation" and "the invasion" by foreign troops — referring to the U.S. Marines who arrived the day Aristide fled and the U.N. peacekeepers who have taken over since June.


On Saturday, police arrested Haiti's Senate president and two other pro-Aristide politicians following a six-hour standoff in a radio station. Latortue said the three were arrested on suspicion of orchestrating violence during last week's demonstrations.


The politicians insist they are innocent. Pro-Aristide groups criticized the arrests as political persecution and said police and gangsters opened fire on Aristide supporters during last week's demonstrations, killing several people. At least one teenager was killed by police.


Latortue denied any wrongdoing by authorities.


Some Haitians have criticized U.N. peacekeepers for not doing more to prevent violence. But U.N. officials say they are doing the best they can, as about 750 troops from the 3,000-member force have been deployed to the area of the floods around the northwestern city of Gonaives. The force is less than half the promised 8,000.





Rescuers sifting through mud and debris left by the storm more than two weeks ago discovered dozens more bodies, bringing the official death toll Monday close to 2,000. Civil defense agency spokesman Dieufort Deslorges said that number included 233 who died of illness and injuries.

Aid workers planned to distribute more food Monday to thousands of hungry survivors in Gonaives, a city of 250,000 where Jeanne left some 200,000 homeless. Many food distributions have been mobbed by desperate crowds, and young men often loot trucks carrying supplies, while U.N. peacekeepers fire into the air to keep order.

Another 100,000 victims around Gonaives were also left homeless, officials said.