18937: (Chamberlain) Haiti-Uprising (later story) (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

   By MARK STEVENSON

   PORT-AU-PRINCE, Feb 21 (AP) -- A U.S.-led diplomatic mission arrived in
Haiti on Saturday in a bid to persuade rival politicians to accept a peace
plan, amid demands that President Jean-Bertrand Aristide step down and
rebel threats to seize Haiti's second-largest city.
   The accord requires the government and opposition agree by Tuesday to a
three-way commission of representatives from both sides and international
delegates. There was little enthusiasm for the deal, however, which demands
compromises Haitian government and opposition leaders have resisted for
years.
   "The plan attempts to pull his (Aristide's) teeth but doesn't have the
means," opposition leader Evans Paul said.
   It was to be presented the day after militant Aristide loyalists
attacked anti-government protesters, hurling rocks and bottles, firing
shotguns and swinging machetes. No police arrived to protect the
protesters, and at least 14 people were injured. A journalist shot twice in
the back was in serious condition.
   Opposition leaders got news of the attack as U.S. Ambassador James Foley
and five other diplomats were giving them a timetable for the plan -- of
which two key points are disarming politically motivated gangs and setting
rules for political demonstrations.
   "It was a cold shower. The ambassadors looked shocked," Paul said.
   Protesters on Friday denounced any negotiation that does not include
Aristide's resignation. Haiti's leader, who has survived three
assassination attempts and a coup d'etat, says refuses to step down.
   Aristide says he cannot negotiate with "terrorists" and accuses the
political opposition of supporting the armed rebellion that erupted Feb. 5
and has killed more than 60 people, including about 40 police.
   Rebel leader Guy Philippe said Friday the next rebel target is Haiti's
second-largest city, Cap-Haitien, where he served as police chief before
fleeing in 2000 amid charges that he plotted a coup.
   Aristide's government spokesman, Mario Dupuy, said "the government hopes
the mission will be able to detach the opposition from acts and actors of
violence ... the opposition has a chance to prove it is not in favor of
violence and terrorism."
   Roger Noriega, the top U.S. diplomat for the Western Hemisphere, arrived
with diplomats from a slew of nations in Europe, Latin America and the
Caribbean whose international force, combined with pressure from the
popular rebellion, is being wielded to win an agreement.
   "It's an ultimatum being laid at both doorsteps, even more so on the
doorstep of President Aristide," a European diplomat said on condition of
anonymity.
   Scores of Americans, including missionaries and aid workers, left Haiti
on Friday after the United States urged them to flee the mounting violence
in government-held areas and threats of new rebel attacks over this
Carnival weekend.
   The airport was busy Saturday and all of American Airlines' five daily
flights to the United States were full, but mostly with Haitians who said
they were going to spend carnival weekend in Miami.
   Rebels have chased police from more than a dozen northern towns and cut
supply lines, blocking the highway north at Gonaives, Haiti's
fourth-largest city, with barricades of shipping containers.
   Aid agencies warn a humanitarian catastrophe is imminent, as food,
medical supplies and gas run out.
   The United States blames Aristide's government for the crisis, saying it
ignored mounting problems and did not halt police corruption, act on
promises to negotiate with the opposition and end growing civil disorder.
   Diplomats told opposition leaders Friday that the international
community will not help end the rebellion without a political agreement,
Paul said.
   But their plan does not address how to end the rebellion, led by a
motley group of former Aristide thugs and ex-soldiers and a death squad
commander from the disbanded Haitian army that ousted Aristide in 1991.
   Paul said the ambassadors said they believed the Democratic Platform
coalition "has enough moral force to persuade the rebels to lay down their
arms."
   That was an odd statement, he noted, since among rebel leaders are
people who tried to kill Paul and other opponents under brutal military
dictatorships 1991 to 1994.
   The ambassadors presented a time frame, with a commission composed of
government, opposition and international community representatives to be
set up by Tuesday and a four-point plan to be in place by March 17, Paul
said.
   Haiti's government and opposition leaders have been unable to agree on a
prime minister since flawed legislative elections in 2000 were swept by
Aristide's Lavalas Party.
   Aristide, who won Haiti's first free elections in a landslide in 1990,
has lost support since his re-election. Haiti's chronic misery has deepened
since international donors froze aid.
   The president, a former priest, has responded to growing opposition by
using police and armed gangs to stifle dissent.