Haitian rebel in hiding after US-led drug offensive, loyalist says

Описание: (20 Jul 2007)
1. Wide entrance to the city of Les Cayes
2. Close of sign saying welcome to Les Cayes
3. Wide street with traffic
4. Various exteriors Guy Phillipe's house
5. Various of door and window
6. SOUNDBITE: (Creole) Rely Louizaire, Local resident:
" We saw the helicopter turning around. They saw the house and then they came down."
7. Wide man showing were the helicopter landed
8. SOUNDBITE: (French) Lazzarre Dieunord, Local resident:
"It was a violent intervention to my private property without my authorisation"
9. Various of port and streets
STORYLINE:
A former rebel leader and presidential candidate has gone into hiding after US Drug Enforcement Administration agents launched a military-style operation to arrest him in this Haitian town, a member of his party said Wednesday.
Ronald Etienne, a deputy in Haiti's lower house of parliament, told The Associated Press that DEA and Haitian anti-drug agents raided Guy Philippe's home on Monday but did not find him. Philippe has long denied accusations of ties to drug trafficking.
"He's in hiding and covering himself. It's normal under the circumstances because he feels his life is in danger," said Etienne, a member of the Front for National Reconstruction, a minor political party led by Philippe.
Etienne declined to say how he knew Philippe was in hiding and said he did not know his location.
Shortly after dawn Monday, five helicopters, two airplanes and at least a dozen DEA and Haitian agents converged on Philippe's home, Etienne said in a telephone interview.
Local residents witnessed the raid.
Rely Louizaire told AP Television "We saw the helicopter turning around. They saw the house and then they came down."
Haitian police said on Tuesday that DEA agents carried out an operation in Les Cayes.
But US and Haitian authorities have refused to acknowledge if they are pursuing Philippe, who helped overthrow former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide in 2004.
Philippe ran for president last year and shortly afterward moved to a rural area of Les Cayes, Haiti's third largest town.
Etienne said party officials were not in contact with Philippe but would support him against any effort to prosecute or extradite him for alleged drug trafficking.
Philippe's home was vacant Wednesday except for a groundskeeper who allowed AP journalists to view the property, which is protected by a concrete gate, a razor-wire fence and steel bars over the windows.

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