Cap Haïtien, Haiti’s second-largest city, has become the principal arena for duels between pro- and anti-government demonstrators in recent months.

On Sep. 14, demonstrators of the Opposition Front of the North (FRON) marched through the city while partisans of the Lavalas Family party (FL) of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide marched simultaneously down a parallel street one block away. The actions ended in a melee when FRON demonstrators attempted to change their march route to intersect with their pro-government counterparts. The police attempted to create a buffer but then had to disperse both demonstrations with tear-gas when protestors began throwing rocks and bottles at each other and the police. Five people were wounded in the skirmish.

Residents of Cap, located on Haiti’s north coast, were bracing for a similar confrontation on Oct. 5. The FRON announced a march for that day along the same route that FL partisans had reserved days before. The police called in both groups to negotiate a compromise.

The talks were not aided by the inflammatory proclamations beaming from Radio Maxima, one of Cap’s most powerful stations. Owned by a FRON leader, Jean-Robert Lalanne, Maxima hosted spokespersons from the FRON and other opposition groups who made open calls for violence, dire predictions of “carnage,” and vulgar insults aimed at elected city leaders.

Nonetheless, the negotiations were successful, and the routes of the two demonstrations were modified according to the proposals of Cap police chief Charles Chilli.

Then, unexpectedly, on the evening of Oct. 4, FRON leaders cancelled the next day’s demonstration, saying that the government’s partisans were preparing a “bloodbath.”

Despite the announcement, a few dozen opposition demonstrators, saying they were from FRON, gathered at 10 a.m. in the Carénage neighborhood. They marched into town, respecting no particular march route and creating a climate of tension. They repeatedly taunted and disobeyed the police, who were deployed in great number, but there were no major incidents.

Meanwhile, more than 2000 government partisans marched loudly but peacefully to support Aristide, respecting police directives.

In an Oct. 5 press conference at the Brise de mer hotel, Evans Paul, a leader of the Democratic Convergence opposition front, applauded the small group of opposition demonstrators who had defied their leaders’ annulment and challenged the police. He praised their provocational tactics as “hide and seek mobilization.”

Pastor Jackson Noël, a FRON leader, said that the decision to cancel the opposition’s demonstration was due to the police changing the original route. He also charged pro-FL forces with planning violence. “We got wind of certain arrangements of the government which would result in a bloodbath,” he said. “Faced with our responsibility before the nation and the world, we decided unanimously to postpone this march.”

Pro-opposition stations, in particular Radio Kiskeya, broadcast similar predictions that they would be the targets of violence prior to the giant Sep. 30 march of the National Popular Assembly (PPN) in Port-au-Prince (see Haïti Progrès, Vol. 21, No. 29, 10/1/2003). PPN leaders called the charges “ridiculous.” No attacks ever took place.

In Cap’s Oct. 5 pro-Lavalas march, several elected officials, such as departmental delegate Myrtho Julien, deputies Nahoum Marcellus, James Derosin, and Théodore Saintilus, as well as Sen. Harry Désir, marched with demonstrators to demand an end to the destabilization campaign against Haiti and to call for elections before January 2004, when terms run out.

“When the Lavalas demonstrates, it is with order and discipline,” said Julien. “If the opposition wants power, they must participate in elections. They must be able to convince the population that they offer an alternative.”

But FRON leaders reject any elections under Aristide and which are not overseen by the Organization of American States (OAS).

At the Oct. 5 press conference, Charles Elusca, another FRON leader, urged his partisans to organize future marches without informing the police and called for a two-day general strike on Oct. 6 and 7 in the North and Northeast departments.

The strike failed. A few schools closed and some large stores were halfway shuttered, but all other sectors, including transportation, went about business as usual.

A French Embassy official was spotted accompanying a FRON leader from Port-au-Prince to Cap Haïtien on Oct. 4. Many other representatives of the OAS and the French and U.S. Embassies were noted in Cap Haïtien on Oct. 5, often speaking with opposition leaders.

On Oct. 6, funeral services for assassinated popular leader Amiot “Cubain” Métayer were finally held at the Mormon Church in Gonaïves.

The funeral was to have taken place on Oct. 5 but could not be held due to regular demonstrations and violence which has gripped the town since his death on Sep. 22 (see Haïti Progrès, Vol. 21, No. 29, 10/1/2003).

Several hundred people attended the service, which was held peacefully.

Demonstrators threw rocks at police after the service, but the burial of Cubain’s body on the roadside near his home in the Gonaïves neighborhood of Raboteau proceeded without incident.

On Oct. 1, demonstrators burned down the customs house, the port authority headquarters, and the local tax office.

The local representative of the executive, Elans Dubois, asserted that the arson was not committed by Raboteau residents or Cubain’s partisans but by agitators from out of town. But the chief of staff of the Secretary of State for Public Security, Léonard Dany Fabien, said that the fires were set by those agencies’ employees, many of whom are Raboteau residents who found their job through Cubain’s influence.

On Oct. 2, heavily-armed police units surrounded and then entered Raboteau, seeking to reestablish order and to disarm and arrest those responsible for the fires and other violence. Three people were killed and several wounded. The police say they were not responsible for the deaths.