19063: (Chamberlain) Haiti-Uprising (later story) (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

   By MICHAEL NORTON

   PORT-AU-PRINCE, Feb 23 (AP) -- Fifty U.S. Marines streamed into the
capital Monday to protect the U.S. Embassy and its staff, while government
loyalists set flaming barricades to block the road from rebels threatening
to move on Port-au-Prince.
   Frightened Cabinet ministers were asking friends for places to hide,
senior government sources said, a day after the rebels attacked two police
stations outside the capital and seized Haiti's second-largest city,
Cap-Haitien, with little resistance.
   In Cap-Haitien, rebels hunted down militants loyal to President
Jean-Bertrand Aristide, accusing them of terrorizing the population in the
days before the fall of the northern port city of 500,000.
   "I am a brick mason, I didn't do anything wrong," Jean-Bernard Prevalis,
33, pleaded as he was dragged away, head bleeding.
   "We're going to clean the city of all 'chimeres,'" said rebel Dieusauver
Magustin, 26. Chimere, which means ghost, is used to describe hardcore
Aristide militants.
   It was not clear what would happen to those detained. One rebel said
they were saving them from lynching. But another, Claudy Philippe, said
"The people show us the (chimere) houses. If they are there, we execute
them."
   Thousands of people in Cap-Haitien demonstrated in favor of the
rebellion Monday, chanting "Aristide get out!" and "Goodbye Aristide."
   Residents went on a rampage of reprisals and looting that began after
the insurgents seized the city. Looters stole the 800 tons of food from the
U.N. World Food Program warehouse, according to the agency's Andrea
Bagnoli, and people torched the colonial mansion of Mayor Wilmar Innocent,
who supports Aristide.
   Rebel leader Guy Philippe said his men could do nothing to stop the
looting, and blamed Aristide's government for leaving most of Haiti's 8
million people hungry and desperate. However, some rebels later fired shots
into the air to scatter looters at Cap-Haitien's seaport. At least two
looters were hit by rebel gunfire and taken to a hospital.
   Philippe said more than 30 residents have volunteered to fight with the
rebels, who have started to replace officials in Cap-Haitien with rebel
sympathizers. He said in an interview Monday that he hopes to take
Port-au-Prince by Sunday, his 36th birthday.
   Remissainthe Ravix, another rebel leader, told The Associated Press
there was no turning back.
   "We have the weapons and the expertise to take the country," he said.
"Nothing can stop us."
   The rebels cut cellular telephone service in the city, saying they
wanted no communication with Port-au-Prince.
   Cap-Haitien is just 90 miles north of Port-au-Prince, but is a grueling
seven-hour drive over potholed roads sometimes reduced to bedrock.
   Aid agencies have warned a humanitarian catastrophe is brewing, with
268,000 people who depended on food aid in northern Haiti being the most
vulnerable. The International Committee of the Red Cross sent medical
supplies and a four-person team.
   Aristide's Premier Yvon Neptune said the international community must
help save Haiti from "terrorists that are sowing violence and death," but
he did not go so far as to ask for peacekeepers.
   Neptune appealed to the political opposition coalition to agree to a
U.S.-backed international peace plan.
   The opposition had said it would formally respond by Monday afternoon to
the plan, but leaders later indicated they would not agree to any proposal
that does not require Aristide to step down.
   Evans Paul, a leading opposition politician once allied with Aristide,
said Secretary of State Colin Powell telephoned opposition politicians
Monday, asking them to wait another 24 hours before announcing their
official position on the peace plan.
   But Paul said the coalition remained firm in its demand, describing "Mr.
Aristide's departure as an essential part to resolving this crisis."
   Aristide on Saturday accepted the plan, which would allow him to remain
president with diminished powers, sharing with political rivals a
government that would organize elections.
   With violence rising both from Aristide supporters and the insurgents,
France urged its citizens Monday to leave its former colony. The United
States and Mexico told their citizens to get out last week. There are about
30,000 foreigners in Haiti, including about 20,000 Americans, 2,000 French
and 1,000 Canadians.
   Rifles at the ready, about 24 Marines in combat gear and helmets rushed
off the U.S. Air Force transport plane at Toussaint Louverture
International Airport on Monday and ran to make a secure a perimeter around
the aircraft before another 30 Marines got off a second plane. Some
Haitians stood on cars or high walls to peer at the Marines at the airport.
   Western diplomats and a Defense Department official said the Marines
would protect the U.S. Embassy in Port-au-Prince and its staff.
   Sunday's victory means more than half of Haiti now is beyond the control
of the central government. The takeover of Cap-Haitien by only some 200
fighters was the most significant victory since the uprising began on Feb.
5. At least 17 were killed in Sunday's fighting, raising the toll to about
70 dead and dozens wounded in the revolt.
   In Port-au-Prince, hundreds of armed Aristide supporters set up more
than a dozen barricades on the road leading north, near the international
airport. Their tension was evident as they banged on a car with rifle butts
and waved shotguns and pistols at vehicles to force them to stop.
   "We are ready to resist, with anything we have -- rocks, machetes," said
a teacher guarding one roadblock, who gave his name only as Rincher.
   Aristide was wildly popular when he became Haiti's first freely elected
leader in 1990 but he has lost support since flawed legislative elections
in 2000 led international donors to freeze millions of dollars in aid.
   Opponents accuse the former priest of failing to help those in need in
the Western Hemisphere's poorest country, allowing corruption and
masterminding attacks on opponents by armed gangs. Aristide denies the
charges.
   Philippe was an officer in the army when it ousted Aristide in 1991 and
instigated a reign of terror that ended in 1994 when the United States sent
20,000 troops to end the military dictatorship.
   ------
   Associated Press reporters Paisley Dodds contributed to this report from
Cap-Haitien and Mark Stevenson contributed from Port-au-Prince.