In Haiti, shift from disjointed rebellion to wider uprising

Last week, he was wearing a white suit with epaulets as he hung out at the Front's makeshift headquarters, located in his sister's house. It's one of the few two-story structures in the seaside slum of Raboteau. Heavily armed former soldiers were bustling around the grimy back yard.

"Now we are going to take the rest of Haiti," says Métayer, calmly.

A week ago, Métayer's thugs were joined by the leader of the infamous paramilitary force which murdered hundreds during the coup and by soldiers from the army he disbanded after he returned to office in 1994.

The Front's "Commander in Chief" is the smiling, baby-faced Philippe. Once a soldier, he later joined Haiti's new police force, but Aristide soon accused him of drug-dealing and coup-plotting. Claiming innocence, he fled to the Dominican Republic. Louis Jodel Chamblain, the "Commandante," is leading the Front's military operations. Also a former soldier, Chamblain is more infamous for the year he spent at the head of the Front for Hai-tian Advancement and Progress (FRAPH), a brutal paramilitary group accused by the Haitian justice system, as well many local and international rights groups, of the murders of hundreds.

According to a 1996 UN Human Rights Commission, FRAPH also had close ties to the CIA, which paid the salary of at least one leader - Emmanuel "Toto" Constant - and also allegedly supplied the thugs with weapons. The CIA has denied the charges.

Last week, Chamblain resurfaced and was embracing the men he used to chase down, men like Métayer and Émile Déré, a recent recruit.

"FRAPH almost took me out during the coup," says Mr. Déré, a tall 34-year-old dressed in military fatigues. "I was a student. We were all fighting for Aristide's return then."

When Aristide was restored to office by a US military intervention, Déré joined the police force. But he became disillusioned. He was trained for judicial investigation, but found himself being sidelined. More and more, the good cops had to look over their shoulders, he says. Déré went AWOL in December and joined his cousin in the Dominican Republic. He says he wants a country with a clean police force and other democratic institutions.

"Now I'm in the same army with FRAPH people and ex-soldiers," Déré says with irony.

Still, Déré says he is not 100 percent comfortable with Chamblain's background.

"But we aren't here to judge," he says. "For now, we both have the same objective: get rid of Aristide. After we accomplish that he should face justice."

The former police and soldiers under Chamblain's command haven't been seen in Gonaives for two days. People in the mountain town near the rebels' base camp say the rebels passed through recently. But asked about their movements, one 21-year army veteran who is now in charge of the St. Michel de l'Atalaye police station said: "We're in the woods. We're in the mountains. We're just waiting for the right moment to take Cap-Haïtien."

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