18923: (Chamberlain) Haiti-Uprising (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

   By MARK STEVENSON

   PORT-AU-PRINCE, Feb 20 (AP) -- Scores of Americans, including
missionaries and aid workers, streamed out of Haiti on Friday to escape a
two-week rebellion that has overwhelmed the impoverished country's north.
Many police deserted their posts, and rebels threatened new attacks this
weekend.
   Later in the day, American and other diplomats handed President
Jean-Bertrand Aristide a plan that calls for an interim governing council
to advise him, and appoint a prime minister agreeable to both sides.
   But both sides were almost certain to reject it -- Aristide because he
has said he will not negotiate with the opposition, and opposition leaders
because they want Aristide to step down.
   Pro-government militants torched 15 homes in the western port of St.
Marc overnight, and three people died in the fires, independent Radio
Galaxie reported.
   A day after the U.S. government urged Americans to leave Haiti, more
than 200 people from the United States, France and Canada stood in long
lines Friday at Toussaint Louverture International Airport, anxious to get
out.
   "We knew that it was right for us to leave. It's just hard," said Nancy
McWilliams, an 18-year-old from Ottawa who abandoned a volunteer job at a
children's home in northern Cap-Haitien.
   The U.S. government has begun placing air marshals on all American
flights in and out of Haiti because of hijacking fears, officials in
Washington said. American Airlines said seats were sold out on four of five
daily flights to the United States.
   American missionary Gerald St. Vincent, waiting for a flight to Miami,
said Haiti will resolve its problems "only if they have help from outside
sources -- not less help but more."
   The uprising began two weeks ago when rebels took the city of Gonaives,
and they have since pushed police out of more than a dozen towns in the
north. They accuse Aristide of breaking promises to help the poor and of
driving the country into chaos while quietly supporting attacks on
opponents -- charges the president denies.
   The proposal presented Friday reflects heightened international pressure
to break the stalemate between Aristide and his opponents after more than
three weeks of unrest that has included outbreaks of violence. It would
also disarm politically allied street gangs
   Protesters at an anti-government march on Friday vehemently denounced
any negotiations that could leave in Aristide power.
   "Aristide is a scorpion!" about 1,000 marchers chanted, until they were
attacked by Aristide supporters, who threw rocks and bottles and then
opened fire.
   More than 20 people were injured and at least two were shot, hospital
officials and the Red Cross said. One of those shot was a reporter with
Radio Ibo, the station reported.
   Some foreigners vowed to remain despite the violence.
   American missionary Terry Snow, who planned to stay, said six truckloads
of pro-Aristide gunmen torched seven houses in his seaside neighborhood in
St. Marc. As their houses burned, residents jumped into the sea and gunmen
fired into the air to keep them from returning to land, he said.
   "Innocent people are being killed and houses are burned down every day
and night in St. Marc and the police are doing nothing," said Snow, 39, of
Granbury, Texas.
   He said about 20 American, German, Norwegian and Canadian missionaries
left for the neighboring Dominican Republic this week from St. Marc, which
has become one of Haiti's most violent front-line cities.
   No foreigners have been killed in the uprising which began Feb. 5 and
has claimed the lives of more than 60 Haitians, about 40 of them police
officers. Armed men have threatened missionaries and journalists.
   There are an estimated 30,000 foreigners in Haiti, including about
20,000 Americans. Many of them also have Haitian passports, but it is not
known how many.
   All 70 Peace Corps volunteers are being pulled out of Haiti. They were
in a convoy Friday heading to the Dominican Republic.
   France's U.N. ambassador, Jean-Marc de la Sabliere, warned that the
chaos compounded by the "depths of despair and of chronic misery ... cannot
but lead to a humanitarian catastrophe."
   The Pentagon said it was sending a small military team to assess
security for the U.S. Embassy and its staff.
   "This place used to be full of foreigners. The Peace Corps volunteers
would come in from their villages to watch television," said John Leary, an
American forestry adviser, motioning at the deserted lounge of the Roi
Christophe Hotel in Cap-Haitien.
   The new leader of a loose alliance of three rebel groups, Guy Philippe,
said he plans to attack Cap-Haitien during celebrations of the pre-Lenten
carnival bash that were scheduled to begin Friday and run through Tuesday.
   About 60 frightened police officers have barricaded themselves into
their station at Cap-Haitien, saying there aren't enough of them and
they're too poorly armed to fight. Gangs of armed Aristide supporters built
roadblocks and vowed to fight any rebel attack.
   Police deserted their posts Thursday in the northern city of Fort
Liberte, witnesses reached by telephone said. No rebels were in sight.
   A U.S. official said Prime Minister Yvon Neptune sent a letter to U.S.
Ambassador James Foley requesting help to strengthen the police, judiciary
and restore order.
   Secretary of State Colin Powell has said the United States would not
object if Aristide agreed to leave office early. Aristide's term ends
February 2006, and he has said he will not leave before them.
   The violence has raised fears of a mass exodus of Haitians, but the U.S.
Coast Guard has said it has not seen any increase in migrants leaving.