Anti-Aristide rebels capture second-largest city

CAP-HAITIEN, Haiti -- Rebels captured Haiti's second-largest city, Cap-Haitien, after just a few hours of fighting Sunday, claiming their biggest prize in a two-week uprising that has driven government forces from most of the country's north.\nRevelers shot celebratory rounds into the air and people looted and torched buildings. Some of the rebels boasted their next target was the capital, Port-au-Prince, still under the control of police and militants loyal to President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.\n"We came in today, and we took Cap-Haitien. Tomorrow we take Port-au-Prince," said Lucien Estime, 19. "Our mission is to liberate Haiti."\nRebels said their force of about 200 met little resistance except at the airport, where they said eight people were killed. It took just a few hours for the force to push from the southern outskirts of the city into the city center.\nThousands of people shouting "Down with Aristide!" marched with a convoy of about 40 rebels in eight commandeered cars.\n"We're free!" people shouted, ripping Aristide posters off walls.\nSome looted the pro-Aristide Radio Africa station, and rebels shot up the building while a crowd clapped. One man, said to be an Aristide supporter, lay dead in the street from a bullet to the stomach. A second man, whose allegiance was not known, was shot in the head and killed.\nEarlier, about 10 armed men stormed the police station and freed about 250 prisoners. The police fled, according to witness Odril Jean, 25, who lives next door. It was unclear whether the attackers were Aristide militants or the rebels, who have torched a score of police stations and freed prisoners since the uprising against Aristide began Feb. 5.\n"The people are happy. Finally we're free from terror," said Fifi Jean, 30, unperturbed as she stood in front of the blazing police headquarters building, where people looted everything in sight.\nTeenagers paraded in police hats and body armor while rebels handed over keys of cars to residents and drank beer. People hefted away weapons, typewriters, mattresses, even doors. Radio Kiskeya reported people were plundering the port, looting containers on the wharf.\nRebel commander Jean-Baptiste Joseph, formerly head of an association of ex-soldiers from Haiti's disbanded army, declared, "It's the army that's in charge here. It's the army that will free Haiti."\nHaiti's army ousted Aristide eight months after his 1991 inauguration and began a reign of terror until the United States sent 20,000 troops in 1994 to end the military dictatorship, restore Aristide and halt an exodus of boat people to the shores of Florida.\nThe rebels had threatened for days to take Cap-Haitien. They have captured several towns in Haiti's north since they rose up Feb. 5. The uprising has killed about 60 people, approximately two-thirds of them police.\nThe rebels accuse Aristide of using the police and armed militants to stifle dissent and allowing corrupt officials to enrich themselves while Haitians suffer deepening poverty.\nThe latest attack puts added pressure on politicians negotiating a U.S.-backed international peace plan that would leave Aristide as president but force him to share power with his political rivals.\nA diplomatic delegation left Haiti Saturday night after failing to persuade Aristide's political opponents to accept the plan, which would require the two sides to share power.\nAristide, who would remain president under the plan, said he agreed to a new prime minister and government to organize elections.\nBut he declared he would "not go ahead with any terrorists," meaning he would not negotiate with the rebels.\nThe opposition politicians are not allied with the rebels, but both want to see Aristide step down. The political opponents met with foreign envoys Saturday and promised to deliver a formal response to the peace proposal by 5 p.m. today.\n"This is their last chance. If they say no, they are saying no to the international community," a senior Western diplomat said on condition of anonymity in Port-au-Prince, where the opposition was under new pressure to resign.\nStill, that diplomat conceded there seemed only a "slim possibility" that the opposition, which says Aristide is the source of the violence, would come around.\nIn addition, though the opposition and the rebels share the goal of ousting Aristide, they are also at odds. Under Haiti's military dictatorship, some officials who are now among the rebels had tried to kill prominent members of the opposition.\nThe United States has urged citizens to leave the country.\nThroughout the recent bloodshed, Aristide, who has survived three assassination attempts and a coup d'etat, has said he will not step down before his term ends in 2006.\nAristide accuses his political opponents of supporting the rebellion. His government spokesman, Mario Dupuy, said that with the plan "the opposition has a chance to prove it is not in favor of violence and terrorism."\nOpposition leaders said the plan does not address how to halt the uprising and disarm rebels and militants.