Haitian authorities seek to arrest activist

By Michael Deibert, Reuters, 15 January 2003

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Jan 15 (Reuters)—Authorities issued an arrest warrant for a former Haitian army colonel who has helped lead a wave of anti-government protests, a judicial source said on Wednesday.

The warrant issued on Tuesday against Himmler Rebu, a former colonel in the Haitian army disbanded by President Jean-Bertrand Aristide in 1994, charges that Rebu injured government supporters during clashes between Aristide supporters and opponents on Friday, said the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The violence in Port-au-Prince began when a group chanting pro-Aristide slogans began pelting an anti-government march Rebu was leading with rocks and bottles. It spiraled into a chaotic afternoon that saw Haitian police firing automatic weapons into the air and along the ground.

More than a dozen bleeding and battered demonstrators and counter-demonstrators staggered into a hospital.

Rebu has denied the charges.

I was always with the police during this demonstration, he said on Wednesday. The government is trying to neutralize me. I call on the opposition to react strongly against these maneuvers.

Haiti has been rocked by increasingly violent demonstrations over the last two months as opposition parties, students and other groups have called on Aristide to resign.

Aristide, a former Roman Catholic priest serving his second term as president of the poor Caribbean country, has been locked in a political dispute over the results of May 2000 parliamentary elections, which opposition parties allege were calculated to favor Aristide's Lavalas Family party.

Also on Wednesday, men who said they represented groups of demobilized soldiers visited radio stations around the capital to read a statement in support of Rebu.

We warn the Aristide government not to arrest Himmler Rebu because he is a citizen and has the right to participate in the political process, one said.

The men declined to give their names, citing security concerns.

Several high-profile arrest warrants against Aristide supporters, including one against Rene Civil, a leader of Friday's pro-Aristide faction, have yet to be executed though the subjects operate with relative ease and in public view in the capital.

Rebu has been one of the driving forces in the latest round of anti-government protests, which began with a march in the northern city of Cap Haitien on Nov. 17 that drew 10,000 people.

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Holy cow!

Himmler Rebu an ACTIVIST? I cannot believe what I am reading. Clearly, Michael Deibert did not live in Haiti when Rebu was the head of the Corps des Leopards under Duvalier, one of the best trained and most hated part of the Haitian army.

That Rebu would rise again, like a phoenix out of its ashes (make that smelly ashes) is already incredible. That he has managed to regain some form of credibility to now be called an activist is beyond comprehension.

Maybe Deibert could better balance his reporting by interviewing victims of that elite corps during the Duvalier years. Then readers will get a better sense of who Himmler Rebu really is.