18903: (Chamberlain) Haiti-Uprising (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

   By MICHAEL NORTON

   PORT-AU-PRINCE, Feb 20 (AP) -- Americans began fleeing Haiti on Friday
after insurgents torched police outposts and threatened new attacks in a
spreading rebellion against President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, who defiantly
declared he's ready to die for his nation.
   In Haiti's west, pro-Aristide supporters burned down homes in a seaside
neighborhood and fired guns above the heads of residents who jumped into
the ocean for safety.
   There were no immediate reports of casualties.
   Meanwhile, the new leader of several rebel groups, Guy Philippe, said he
plans to attack Cap-Haitien, the government's last remaining stronghold in
the north, during carnival celebrations starting Friday. Philippe was
Aristide's police chief in Cap-Haitien but fled in 2002 amid charges he was
plotting a coup.
   Citing mounting violence, the United States on Thursday urged the more
than 20,000 Americans in Haiti to leave while transportation was still
available. The Peace Corps also said it was withdrawing about 70
volunteers.
   The Pentagon said it was sending a small military team to assess the
security of the U.S. Embassy and its staff.
   Radio stations reported that rebels torched the police station at the
northeast border post of Ouanaminthe on Thursday, and witnesses said police
fled in fear from their posts in northern Fort Liberte. No rebels were in
sight.
   The northern rebellion has killed dozens of people, including about 40
police officers, according to Jean-Gerard Dubreuil, undersecretary for
public security.
   During the night, truckloads of pro-Aristide gunmen attacked a
neighborhood in western St. Marc and burned down seven houses, American
missionary Terry Snow said, adding that 15 Americans in his group of 20
missionaries fled Haiti this week.
   As their houses burned, residents jumped into the sea to get away from
gunmen shooting into the air, said Snow, originally from Granbury, Texas.
   "These are all innocent people -- they are not involved in the political
conflict," said Snow, 39, who has lived in the neighborhood for 13 years.
   "Innocent people are being killed and houses are burned down every day
and night in St. Marc and the police are doing nothing."
   Snow said the city has been terrorized by the pro-Aristide "Clean Sweep"
gang since police regained the city from about 100 rebels last week.
   Aristide, wildly popular when he became Haiti's first freely elected
leader in 1990, lost support after flawed legislative elections in 2000 led
international donors to freeze millions of dollars in aid.
   Even before the rebellion, about half of Haiti's 8 million people went
hungry daily, according to aid groups.
   The latest violence came as the United States and other nations prepared
to present Aristide and opposition officials with a political plan as early
as Friday.
   The plan calls for an interim governing council to advise Aristide, the
disarmament of politically allied street gangs and the appointment of a
prime minister agreeable to both sides.
   Secretary of State Colin Powell said the plan does not call for
Aristide's resignation, but the United States would not object if he agreed
during negotiations to leave office early. Aristide's term ends February
2006.
   Aristide -- who has survived three assassination attempts and a coup
d'etat -- was defiant Thursday, saying, "I am ready to give my life if that
is what it takes to defend my country."
   Aristide has said he could not negotiate with "terrorists," though
opposition leaders deny his charges that they back the rebels.
   "If you are talking about the opposition that is publicly supporting
terrorists, don't think I will have the irresponsibility of handing them
over such a (prime ministerial) post," Aristide told Radio Canada.
   Opposition leader Evans Paul countered by saying, "It will be difficult
for us to accept any proposal that doesn't include Aristide's resignation."
   The Organization of American States approved a resolution Thursday night
expressing "firm support" for Aristide's government in its efforts to
"restore public order by constitutional means."
   OAS Secretary-General Cesar Gaviria said he was confident that a
political solution could come "not in months, but in weeks."
   U.S. Ambassador John Maisto told delegates that Haiti's crisis "is due
in large part to the failure of the government of Haiti to act in a timely
manner to address problems that it knew were growing."
   He said the government had not fought police corruption, strengthened
its judiciary or restored security.
   At Cap-Haitien, armed supporters of Aristide patrolled and vowed to
fight any rebel attack. Frightened police remained barricaded in their
station, saying they were too few and poorly armed to repel the rebels.
   Haiti's police force numbers less than 4,000 and demoralized officers
this week deserted at least four provincial posts. Eight officers have
sought asylum in Jamaica and the Dominican military said it arrested four
fleeing officers this week.
   Hungry people in rebel-held Gonaives looted food aid from a rebel
storage facility Thursday after being turned away from an aid distribution.
Thousands of people, some brandishing machetes and guns, marched through
the city supporting the rebellion.
   Meanwhile, 20 Haitian refugees arrived by boat in Jamaica -- the second
group in less than a week -- saying they were fleeing the violence,
Jamaican police said.
   Haiti's rebellion has raised fears of a mass exodus on the scale of the
tens of thousands who fled to Florida when Haiti was under brutal military
dictatorships from 1991 to 1994.
   President Clinton sent 20,000 troops in 1994 to restore Aristide, end
the killings of his supporters and halt the flood of refugees.