Haiti-The Poor
9-19-1994
^Jubilation And Fear in Rebellious Slum As U.S. Troops Land
^By ANDREW SELSKY
^Associated Press Writer
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) _ The U.S. Army assault helicopter, bristling with rockets and machine guns, swooped over the slum and sent a ripple of electricity through the ragged crowd below.
Children, yelling and laughing, tried to chase the chopper, running down the dirt streets of Cite Soleil, past an open sewer and homes built of rusty metal and concrete slab. Clusters of men and women stood pointing at the helicopter with broad smiles.
For the 200,000 residents of this slum, the first arrivals of a massive U.S. military force on Monday represents salvation from years of repression. "Today I believe in God. A miracle has happened," said Lafleur St. Laurent, gazing at six helicopters flying low in single-file. "Because without the Americans we would have died, and if they had invaded us with all that power, we might have been killed."
For the first time in three years - since President Jean-Bertrand Aristide was ousted in a coup - adults felt confident enough to gather and denounce the military regime that had been terrorizing them, and to allow their kids to openly celebrate.
"Land here! Land here!" the children shouted at the clattering helicopter gunship, pointing at a vacant lot covering four square blocks where hundreds of homes had existed until a fire last December.
"It is a beautiful bird," one boy said of the helicopter. "We want to touch it."
"We love it, because it has come to free us," said Wilson Fontaine, a 25- year-old resident of this fetid slum, which is a symbol of both popular support for Aristide and repression.
Until last December, the vacant lot was home to about 2,000 people. Their homes were destroyed in a fire lit by suspected hard-line backers of the military-installed government. About 30 people were killed.
During the past few days, Cite Soleil residents lived in even greater terror, not knowing whether they would be hit by military-backed thugs - in a last bloodletting before an invasion ousted them - or by the invasion itself.
"We couldn't sleep last night. We didn't know how things would turn out," said resident Joseph Jacques.
Some Aristide critics have predicted that his supporters would launch a new wave of mob violence if he returns to Haiti, similar to that following the fall of Jean-Claude "Baby Doc" Duvalier in 1986.
Much of that violence could take place in slums like Cite Soleil, where army repression has been the fiercest and the thirst for revenge the strongest. Aristide, however, has promised to pursue reconciliation, not vengeance.
And underlying the joy and relief was an undercurrent of fear of what might happen after the U.S. troops leave.
The White House says it plans to pull out the American soldiers sometime next year, but many Cite Soleil residents do not know that.
"We would like them to stay to help us establish peace," said St. Laurent. "That could take three or four years."
Other residents said the Americans should disarm the military and paramilitary groups that have repressed them for decades, and make sure Aristide is firmly in control before pulling out.
"If the Americans leave before then, we'll really get it," said St. Laurent. "It will be the end of us."
^Jubilation And Fear in Rebellious Slum As U.S. Troops Land
^By ANDREW SELSKY
^Associated Press Writer
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) _ The U.S. Army assault helicopter, bristling with rockets and machine guns, swooped over the slum and sent a ripple of electricity through the ragged crowd below.
Children, yelling and laughing, tried to chase the chopper, running down the dirt streets of Cite Soleil, past an open sewer and homes built of rusty metal and concrete slab. Clusters of men and women stood pointing at the helicopter with broad smiles.
For the 200,000 residents of this slum, the first arrivals of a massive U.S. military force on Monday represents salvation from years of repression. "Today I believe in God. A miracle has happened," said Lafleur St. Laurent, gazing at six helicopters flying low in single-file. "Because without the Americans we would have died, and if they had invaded us with all that power, we might have been killed."
For the first time in three years - since President Jean-Bertrand Aristide was ousted in a coup - adults felt confident enough to gather and denounce the military regime that had been terrorizing them, and to allow their kids to openly celebrate.
"Land here! Land here!" the children shouted at the clattering helicopter gunship, pointing at a vacant lot covering four square blocks where hundreds of homes had existed until a fire last December.
"It is a beautiful bird," one boy said of the helicopter. "We want to touch it."
"We love it, because it has come to free us," said Wilson Fontaine, a 25- year-old resident of this fetid slum, which is a symbol of both popular support for Aristide and repression.
Until last December, the vacant lot was home to about 2,000 people. Their homes were destroyed in a fire lit by suspected hard-line backers of the military-installed government. About 30 people were killed.
During the past few days, Cite Soleil residents lived in even greater terror, not knowing whether they would be hit by military-backed thugs - in a last bloodletting before an invasion ousted them - or by the invasion itself.
"We couldn't sleep last night. We didn't know how things would turn out," said resident Joseph Jacques.
Some Aristide critics have predicted that his supporters would launch a new wave of mob violence if he returns to Haiti, similar to that following the fall of Jean-Claude "Baby Doc" Duvalier in 1986.
Much of that violence could take place in slums like Cite Soleil, where army repression has been the fiercest and the thirst for revenge the strongest. Aristide, however, has promised to pursue reconciliation, not vengeance.
And underlying the joy and relief was an undercurrent of fear of what might happen after the U.S. troops leave.
The White House says it plans to pull out the American soldiers sometime next year, but many Cite Soleil residents do not know that.
"We would like them to stay to help us establish peace," said St. Laurent. "That could take three or four years."
Other residents said the Americans should disarm the military and paramilitary groups that have repressed them for decades, and make sure Aristide is firmly in control before pulling out.
"If the Americans leave before then, we'll really get it," said St. Laurent. "It will be the end of us."
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