18597: (Chamberlain) U.N. appeals for safe passage of aid in Haiti (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

     By Michael Christie

    PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti, Feb 13 (Reuters) - The United Nations appealed
on Friday to the Haitian government and rebels who have staged a week-long
revolt to guarantee safe passage to food and medicine deliveries to avert a
humanitarian disaster.
     U.N. officials said more than 200,000 people in the impoverished
Caribbean country, already dependent on aid, were in danger of going hungry
after an armed gang opposed to President Jean-Bertrand Aristide seized the
city of Gonaives and cut off the north.
     Hospitals that were short of medicines and blood plasma had run out of
medical supplies, as demand for them increased because of the fighting
between the rebels and militant government supporters.
     "The problem is that before the crisis, Haiti was already in crisis,"
Gerard Gomez, the Americas and Caribbean regional disaster response adviser
for the U.N.'s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, told
Reuters.
     In Washington, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell warned Haiti's
opposition against ousting Aristide, who was restored to power a decade ago
by a U.S. invasion.
     "We will accept no outcome that in any way illegally attempts to
remove the elected president of Haiti," Powell told reporters after hosting
a crisis meeting with mediators.
     He also said the United States, Canada and Caribbean nations were
discussing whether foreigners could be sent to bolster Haiti's police
force. But Powell said there was no plan at this point for military
intervention to quell the violence.
     U.N. country coordinator Adama Guindo said in Port-au-Prince that the
agency was chartering a barge to ship 1,000 tonnes of cereals to the
northern city of Cap-Haitien, Haiti's second-largest, and would ask local
authorities there to ensure the safety of food distribution to remote
areas.
     It was also appealing for safe passage from rebels in Gonaives, where
the revolt began on Feb. 5 when an armed gang once aligned to Aristide
drove police out.
     "We know that the needs on the ground of the most vulnerable people in
Gonaives, in Artibonite and the northern provinces are very great and we
would like all the Haitian parties to support and cooperate with the U.N.
and the international humanitarian community for safe passage," Guindo
said.
     Up to 50 people have been killed in the rebellion against Aristide,
which capped months of anti-government demonstrations and three years of
political tensions dating from contested parliamentary elections in 2000.
     Considered a champion of democracy when he became Haiti's first
elected leader in 1990, Aristide has seen his once overwhelming popularity
fade amid accusations of corruption, political violence and civil rights
abuses.
     The revolt spread to several towns, where police stations were
attacked and ports and warehouses were looted, but reached an uneasy
stalemate as armed government supporters joined police in hunting down
rebels and torching the homes and businesses of opponents.
     Gomez, part of a multi-agency U.N. team sent to Haiti to evaluate
humanitarian needs, said it was difficult to pin down the real extent of
hardship and human rights violations because of a lack of reliable
information and access to cut-off areas.
     The security of aid programs was a problem even before the current
fighting in the poorest country in the Americas, where a third of the 8
million population suffers chronic malnutrition and average wages barely
exceed $1 a day.
     Guy Gauvreau of the Rome-based World Food Program said eight truck
convoys had been hijacked and 60 tonnes of food looted in the past four
months.
     The U.N. agency provides food relief to 268,000 people, including
90,000 school children, in the north, where drought followed by floods has
led to food shortages. An additional 77,000 poor people around
Port-au-Prince depend on handouts.

  (Additional reporting by Saul Hudson in Washington)