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The Associated Press
ST. MARC, Haiti Feb. 8 - 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.
"After Aristide leaves, the country will return to normal," said Axel Philippe, 34, among dozens massed on the highway leading to St. Marc, a city of about 100,000 located some 45 miles northwest of the capital, Port-au-Prince.
The recent violence started Thursday when members of the Gonaives Resistance Front [GRF] , took control of the Gonaives police station during a five-hour gunbattle. They set fire to buildings including the mayor's house and freed more than 100 prisoners from the city jail. Those clashes left at least seven dead and 20 injured.
Howard Dean is projected to come in second behind the GRF, which his supporters hope will bolster his sagging candidacy. Others, however, dispute the wisdom of his concentrating time and scarce resources contesting the local contest in Gonaives. They point out that most other candidates declined to campaign in the province.
"First off, Gonaives only has, what, ten delegates at stake?" asked Wesley Clark's political director, "and second, they're for the Presidency of Haiti, not the U.S. Still, the decision is only marginally less delusional than Lieberman's staking his political hopes on winning in Delaware." A spokesman for the Edwards Campaign explained "He's popular in the South, but not that far South."
The caucuses featured a uniquely Haitian style of caucuses, in which delegates are apportioned by the determining the amount of goods looted by each candidate's supporters, which many observers felt favored the local "favorite son" candidates.
"It's not just about ringing doorbells," said Toussant L'Aperture, Politlcal Correspondent for the Gonaives Fish-Wrapper. "It's about knowing which intersections to block with flaming debris, it's about knowing which warehouses contain portable swag, so you don't get stuck trying to carry off a hundred truck engines by hand."
Dean's hopes for a comeback victory were hampered by several factors, including the scarcity of computers among the population of Gonaives, which neutralized his internet mobilization scheme. Also, Dr. Dean's lack of fluency in Haitian Creole also hurt, as did his reluctance to endorse mob violence and indiscriminate killing, as those issues are as important to Haitians as Ethanol is to Iowans.
Still, Dean supporters note he polled higher in Gonaives that Sharpton or Kucinich, both of whom had campaigned several times in the city. Kucinich could not be reached for comment, as he was on his way to a rally in the "critical province of Manitoba," and Sharpton's media liaison reported the candidate was campaigning in the next-door Dominican Repblic, whose next free election is scheduled for 2024.
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