18973: (Chamberlain) Haiti leader okays peace plan but opposition wary (later story) (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

     By Michael Christie

     PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti, Feb 21 (Reuters) - Efforts by U.S.-led
mediators to end a two-week revolt in Haiti hit a wall on Saturday when
embattled President Jean-Bertrand Aristide agreed to a peace plan but his
political opponents were reluctant to accept it.
     But even if those efforts do eventually get both sides on board, it
was far from clear that would satisfy the rebels -- gang leaders, a former
militia leader and ex-soldiers -- whose aim is to push on from the
northwestern and central areas they control, take the rest of the country
and oust Aristide.
     The armed revolt in the poorest country in the Americas, which capped
months of political tensions, has killed more than 50 people, sent
foreigners fleeing and posed the most serious threat to Aristide since he
was ousted in a coup shortly after his first term began in 1991.
     The officials from the United States, Canada, France and Caribbean
nations ended their day-long talks in the sprawling capital without being
able to get Aristide's foes to back a deal that would call for more
opposition participation in the government but keep the president in
office.
     "While we did not get a yes, we did not get a no, and they (the
opposition) have agreed to revert to us with an answer by the close of
business on Monday," Bahamas Foreign Minister Fred Mitchell told reporters.
     As Aristide met diplomats in the capital, nearly 100 students wearing
balaclavas set up barricades of burning tires less than a mile (one km)
from his palace. Chanting "Aristide get out," they burned a jeep before
scampering away as unknown assailants fired shots at them.
     Adding to the bleak outlook, armed rebels who now control about a
dozen towns and villages in northwest and central Haiti after booting the
police out of the western city of Gonaives on Feb. 5 have opposed the plan.
     The rebels, who started out as a gang that once supported the
president, have been joined by former soldiers from the disbanded army and
a leader of a death squad that terrorized the country during a 1990s
military dictatorship. They have sworn to fight until Aristide quits.
     Aristide, who has insisted he will serve out his second term to 2006,
agreed to a plan to set up a broad-based advisory council to appoint a new
prime minister and Cabinet. The panel would also reform the corrupt and
undertrained police and disarm gangs.
     Aristide agreed to the same plan at talks with Caribbean Community
nations last month but the opposition rejected it.
     "We cannot accept co-existence with Mr. Aristide. It is not
acceptable," Rosemond Pradel, head of one of the opposition parties, told
reporters on Saturday.
     Denis Coderre, who was Canada's representative on the trip to Haiti,
told Reuters from his plane as he flew back to Ottawa that the delegation
had told the opposition it was not going to demand Aristide's departure.
     "We said (to the opposition): 'Don't ask the international community
to push for Aristide's resignation'. That's for the Haitian people to
decide, not for us."
     Aristide, a former parish priest, was once seen as a champion of
democracy in Haiti after decades of dictatorships but is now accused of
autocratic and thuggish politics. The revolt in Gonaives came after months
of street protests, frequently attacked by armed Aristide loyalists.
     Aristide was restored to power in 1994 by a U.S. invasion after his
first term was interrupted by a coup. He was re-elected to a second term in
2000, but those elections were boycotted by the opposition.

   (Additional reporting by Alistair Scrutton in Port-au-Prince and David
Ljunggren in Ottawa)