Hti: Violent unrest

This looks like a huge uprising against Aristide. In spite of this all, Aristide says he will not leave until 2006. What about the people who are dying in support of him? Is Aristide's remaining in power worth the loss of human life? He ought to do just the decent thing and just go away.

I weep for Haiti. So much devastation, corruption, mismanagement. So much suffering. A few years ago, the crowds were proclaiming "we want Aristide; give us Aristide." Now, it is "get rid of Aristide," and they're willing to do it at the point of a gun. What to do about Haiti? It's not enough to repeat David Rudder's calypso, Haiti I'm Sorry. I shudder to say or think this, but perhaps Haiti needs a good dose of colonialism for several decades so that the people can become educated, the country developed and got back on its feet, and so democracy can truly flourish. That is the only way Haiti may stop changing its rulers with blood and violence. The thing is, who will bell the cat? God forbid it would be France.

Hundreds of Haitians looted TV sets, mattresses and sacks of flour from shipping containers Sunday in this port town, one of several communities seized by rebels in a bloody uprising against President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.

Using felled trees, flaming tires and car chassis, residents blocked streets throughout St. Marc a day after militants drove out police in gunbattles that killed two people. Many residents have formed neighborhood groups to back insurgents in their push to expel the president.
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In the bloodiest fights of recent days, 150 police tried to retake control of Gonaives on Saturday but left hours later after meeting fierce resistance, witnesses said. At least nine people were killed, seven of them police, in gunbattles with rebels hiding on side streets and crouched in doorways.

Crowds mutilated and beat the corpses of three police officers. One body was dragged through the street as a man swung at it with a machete, and a woman cut off the officer's ear. Another policeman was lynched and stripped to his shorts, and residents dropped large rocks on his body.