Haiti police deemed helpless as jailbreak shows latest violence, chaos

GONAIVES, Haiti — Two days after 159 prisoners fled in a wall-busting escape, none has been recaptured, although the media had no problem finding, interviewing and photographing the man who was the object of the jail break.

About 100 supporters of escaped activist/gang leader Amiot Metayer led a reporter to Metayer in his shantytown stronghold, where 30 of his militants from the self-styled Cannibal Army stood guard, some carrying pistols and submachine guns.

The latest violence and apparent inability of police to react is another indication of the growing chaos enveloping the hemisphere's poorest nation, mired in a two-year political impasse over fraudulent elections that has blocked international aid.

Police fled the city after the jailbreak, then returned Saturday in small numbers. But none dared approach Metayer's stronghold in the Gonaives shantytown of Raboteau. Yesterday, police seemed content to fruitlessly search cars and buses for escaped prisoners on the southbound highway from Gonaives to Port-au-Prince, about 60 miles away.

Metayer turned against President Jean-Bertrand Aristide after he was jailed July 2 on charges of burning down houses of a rival gang. The activist says he is innocent.

According to an Organization of American States report, Metayer participated in past attacks on Aristide opponents, including an assault on the home of politician Luc Mesadieu on Dec. 17. After an armed attack on the country's National Palace that day, Aristide supporters attacked opposition offices and homes.

Mesadieu's assistant, Ramy Daran, was doused with gasoline and burned to death. Mesadieu said he saw Metayer give orders to kill Daran.

Metayer, 38, denied it, saying although he saw Daran die, "I came too late to save him. I never hurt anybody in my life."

At least 10 people died in the Dec. 17 violence, which Aristide claims was a coup attempt. The opposition claims it was staged as a pretext to clamp down on dissent.

Only charred ruins remain where people set fire to the courthouse and city hall after Friday's jailbreak.

The gunmen used a stolen tractor to ram the prison wall, freeing 159 of the 221 inmates, said Clifford Larose, director of Haiti's prison system. One prisoner was shot and killed by the attackers.

Metayer's supporters had been demanding his release for a week. In a handwritten list of demands, they urged the creation of an interim government, new elections by November 2003 and a raise in wages of police and other workers. Metayer also said he wants safe passage to Orlando, Fla., where his mother and two daughters are staying.

Many residents of Gonaives, a city of 200,000, blamed Aristide's government for the chaos, saying there are no jobs, no electricity and little hope.

"We don't like disorder, but Aristide is to blame. I'm sorry I voted for him. He's given street thugs a free hand," said Smith Auguste, a 21-year-old unemployed man.