Haitian rebel leaders, Buteur Metayer (left), Guy Philippe, (second from left), and T-Wil (right), along with an unidentified rebel laugh during a February 19, 2004 rally in Gonaives, where the fighters announced a new name for their joint movement, the National Resistance Front To Liberate Haiti. The uprising that eventually ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide erupted in Gonaives, Haiti's fourth-largest city, on February 5. (Photo: AP)

Thirty-three year-old gang leader Buteur Metayer is probably the least visible of the rebels that helped overthrow Haitian president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide. But like Guy Philippe and Louis-Jodel Chamblain, Metayer harbours national leadership ambitions.

Last month, after his rag-tag army took control of Gonaives, sparking the armed rebellion that eventually led to Aristide's ouster, Metayer declared himself president of the region and vowed he would lay down his weapons only if Aristide resigned.

Metayer's bloody take-over of Gonaives left at least 28 persons dead. His men also torched police stations.
"There is no one that can stop us from doing whatever we want to do," Metayer, flanked by bodyguards toting rifles, was quoted as saying at the time.

"The best thing is for the international community to come over and fetch Aristide. If they don't, there is going to be more bloodshed."
Buteur Metayer, who sports a clean-shaven head and is fond of dark glasses, is the younger brother of Amiot Metayer.

Amiot Metayer was a political activist and former leader of the Cannibal Army who used strong-arm tactics to bolster support for Aristide's Lavalas party.
The Cannibal Army had its beginnings in the mid-1980s as an armed band of common street criminals.

Aristide's opponents charge that he was responsible for arming the group. He has consistently denied this.
In recent years, the Cannibal Army became so powerful that it controlled the lucrative Gonaives port, and even appointed city officials, residents said. The group was also said to have acted with the police to break up Opposition demonstrations and target its leaders.

"The local population were scared to death of the Cannibal Army," said Lodemus Martelly, a Red Cross official in Gonaives. "Even the police were scared of them."
The older Metayer, who was said to have helped secure Aristide's win and occupancy of the Palais National in 1990, apparently enjoyed access to the Presidential Palace before his relationship with Aristide supporters soured.

Amiot Metayer was arrested and locked up in Gonaives, but escaped, along with other prisoners, after a tractor was used to smash the prison walls in July 2003.
However, he was killed on September 22, 2003 and his supporters, who staged protest rallies in Gonaives, blamed Aristide for the killing.

Buteur Metayer pledged to avenge his brother's murder. The gang turned against the Government and changed its name to the National Resistance Front To Liberate Haiti. Its members include soldiers of the former Haitian army which was disbanded after the 1994 US invasion.

Haitians say that it was Buteur Metayer's anger and need for revenge that eventually boiled over into rebellion.

But after Metayer launched the insurrection, Philippe and other commandos from the dissolved Haitian army were allowed to cross the border from the Dominican Republic to join the uprising.
Haitians living in Haiti say it would have been impossible for Philippe to enter Haiti without complicity, given that the border is policed by more than 900 soldiers.

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