- Title: HAITI: POLICE ABANDON THEIR HEADQUARTERS IN HINCHE AFTER REBEL ATTACKS.
- Date: 17th February 2004
- Summary: (W1) HINCHE, HAITI (FEBRUARY 18, 2004) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 1. WS: SIGN MARKING ENTRANCE TO THE CITY AND WOMAN LEADING A HORSE WITH TWO PEOPLE RIDING. 0.10 2. MV: OF RESIDENTS WITH DONKEYS AND CARRYING GOODS ON THEIR HEADS. 0.19 3. SCU: WOMAN WITH DONKEY CARRYING GOODS ON HER HEAD. 0.24 4. WS: HEADQUARTERS OF POLICE STATION THAT W
- Embargoed: 3rd March 2004 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: HINCHE, THOMONE AND DOMOND, HAITI
- Country: Haiti
- Reuters ID: LVACZHFGJ3LIDYW00XXVW7NACVUT
- Story Text: Frightened police officers abandon their
headquarters after rebel attacks.
Police officers frightened by a recent wave of
rebel attacks against police stations, abandoned their
headquarters on Tuesday (February 17) leaving nervous
residents behind.
The flight of the officers came one day after rebels
attacked a station in the central town of Hinche, killing a
police commander.
The attack was the latest in a revolt against Haitian
President Jean-Bertrand Aristide that erupted on Feb. 5 in
the western city of Gonaives and spread to several other
towns. Up to 50 people have been killed.
Police in the towns of Thomonde and Domond, located
near Hinche, fled on Tuesday. They left behind just some
furniture and scattered documents.
"The police of Domond didn't have any security and they
were forced to leave," explained local resident Merlande
Jeromme.
Many, including the government, believe Haiti's
dispirited police face a challenge they do not have the
ability, or the weapons, to overcome without outside help.
The Haitian government appealed on Tuesday (February
17) for foreign help for its beleaguered police, Prime
Minister Yvon Neptune told reporters.
The police, who number about 5,000 in a country of
eight million, have been run out of town in Gonaives and
several other towns in the revolt.
Aristide, who is midway through a second term that he
has said he is determined to complete, disbanded the army
after U.S. troops invaded in 1994 to put him back in office
and restructured the police force with U.S. help.
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