Benign Intervention

InstaPundit noted two Haiti bloggers that are keeping up with news about Haiti: Haiti Pundit and John Engle. The latter observes:

The conflict is incredibly complex. The rebels for the most part, are baddies. In my opinion, Aristide and his regime are also baddies.

FoxNews reports: U.S. Tries to Broker Peace in Haiti; Rebels Threatened to Attack Capital.

Ten years ago, the United States sent 20,000 troops to end a military dictatorship that had ousted Aristide in 1991, a year after he became Haiti's first freely elected leader. But Washington has made clear it won't commit a large number of troops this time.

Aristide, hugely popular when he was elected especially among the destitute in Western hemisphere's poorest country, has since lost a lot of support. Opponents accuse the former priest of failing to help those in need, condoning corruption and masterminding attacks on opponents by armed gangs. Aristide denies the charges. Flawed legislative elections in 2000 led international donors to freeze millions of dollars in aid. [...]

Rebels in Cap-Haitien, meanwhile, hunted down militants loyal to Aristide on Monday, accusing them of terrorizing the population in the days before the city fell.

"I am a brick mason, I didn't do anything wrong," Jean-Bernard Prevalis, 33, pleaded as he was dragged away, head bleeding.

"We're going to clean the city of all 'chimeres,"' said rebel Dieusauver Magustin, 26. Chimere, which means ghost, is used to describe hardcore Aristide militants.

It was not clear what would happen to those detained. One rebel said they were saving them from lynching. But another, Claudy Philippe, said "The people show us the (chimere) houses. If they are there, we execute them."

Posted by Forkum at February 24, 2004 07:47 AM