Reply #21: Thanks, lostnfound. Here's what a member of Canada's press has to say... [View All]

The American news sources all have been making out like Aristide's the bad guy. Here's what our friends to the south (of Detroit) are saying:

New Haitian Prime Minister praises rebels


By MARINA JIMENEZ
From Monday's Globe and Mail

GONAÏVES, HAITI — In a visit rich in symbolism, Haiti's interim leader held his first rally this weekend in the city of Gonaives, where he paid tribute to the self-styled ''freedom fighters'' who ousted former president Jean-Bertrand Aristide.

Gerard Latortue, a native of this gritty port city north of Port-au-Prince, was appointed Prime Minister after Mr. Aristide fled into exile Feb. 29. He praised the rebels, a ragtag street gang formerly known as the Cannibal Army, but he also reminded them of their promise to surrender their arms.

"People said the people of Gonaïves were thugs and bandits. But I know you are freedom fighters," Mr. Latortue, a 69-year-old economist, told the crowd of 3,000 gathered in the city's main square. He asked for a minute of silence for gangster leader Amiot Metayer, whose death sparked the rebels' Feb. 5 attack on a Gonaïves police station -- the beginning of the uprising.

There remains a virtual power vacuum in Gonaïves. The unofficial police chief is a young man named Wilfort Ferdinand, also known as T-Will, who wore a white suit and thick silver chain at Saturday's rally. His deputy is Billy Augustin, a 23-year-old with broken front teeth who worked in a Target discount store in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., until eight months ago, when he came to Haiti, bought a 9mm handgun and became commander of "the soldiers." After sharing the stage with Mr. Latortue at Saturday's rally, T-Will and Mr. Augustin surrendered a grand total of 10 weapons, mostly inoperative M-16s and rifles, at a restaurant off the city's main road. Schoolchildren and boys on bicycles were among the host of fly-swatting local residents who crammed into the restaurant to catch a glimpse of the scene.

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http://www.globeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20040322.wxhaiti22/BNStory/Front/