As rebels take Haiti town by town, a Haitian woman who lives in Bermuda has been worrying constantly about the fate of her loved ones.

Frigga Simmons, who is married to a Bermudian, has a brother and elderly aunts and uncles who are still living in Haiti, the Caribbean island nation that has been wracked by violence in recent weeks.

?I spoke to him (her brother) last Thursday and they hadn?t reached where he is living,? she said. ?(The rebels) haven?t cut the telephones yet, although I spoke to him on his cell phone.

?It seems worse this time ? I don?t know what?s going to happen.

?There is usually social unrest, but I don?t know how bad this is going to get.?

She said it seemed they have taken the major cities, but they are working their way south east.

Mrs. Simmons said that Haiti was the first country to gain independence and was about to celebrate its bicentennial this year.

?Haiti gained its independence with bloodshed in 1804 and this year is the bicentennial.

?The fighting stopped for Mardi Gras and then began again.

?It should be a time of excitement and celebrations.?

Mrs. Simmons said: ?I don?t like watching the news ? there are too many people getting killed unnecessarily.?

She said that Haiti had almost always been in a state of unrest and over the years they have fought for the rights of all their people and flags.

She said she believed that the rebels would not listen President Jean-Bertrand Aristide and cited: ?The US put him back in power.

?Its been going down, down, down ? he hasn?t done much for the country. No one is going to accept him and he is going to leave?

For the Haitians living there ? it is home and there was no where to go for many of them, she added.

?If you are out you don?t go into it,? she said of her homeland.

?For us who are away. What can we do? We can just pray and keep watching the news.?