19111: Lemieux: BBC : Haiti leader urges intervention (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: JD Lemieux <lxhaiti@yahoo.com>

2/24/04
BBC

Haiti leader urges intervention
Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide has called for
international help to end a rebel insurgency designed to
topple him.
Mr Aristide made the call hours before the expiry of a
deadline for the rebels to respond to a US-backed peace
plan.

The rebels control much of the north and have vowed to move
on the capital.

"Should those killers come to Port-au-Prince, you may have
thousands of people who may be killed," Mr Aristide told a
news conference.


The three-week-old insurgency in Haiti has left at least 70
people dead.

France, the former colonial power, is also stepping up its
efforts to help end the crisis.

French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin will meet
representatives of the Haitian government and political
opposition in Paris this week.

"We are in a race against time to stop the violence," Mr de
Villepin told French radio.

Lawlessness

Rebel factions have already overrun the country's second
city, Cap-Haitien and the territory under their control is
said to be rapidly descending into lawlessness.


The insurgents, who have no links to the political
opposition, say they will continue their action until all
of Haiti is "liberated".
Government supporters in Haiti have set up roadblocks at
key points in the capital, Port-au-Prince, and erected
barricades at the presidential palace.

Amid the escalating violence, the UK Foreign Office on
Tuesday advised Britons to leave Haiti because of the
"highly volatile security situation" in the Caribbean
country.

Several other governments have already encouraged their
nationals to leave, including the US, which has also sent
marines to protect its embassy.

Boat people

"We need the presence of the international community as
soon as possible," Mr Aristide told journalists.

The president said the rebels had attacked another town,
Port-de-Paix, even though media reports said the attack had
been carried out by a disgruntled street gang of criminals
who had had trouble with the police.


"The criminals and terrorists went to the north, to
Port-de-Paix, and burned private and public buses, killing
people," Mr Aristide said.

And he warned that the conflict might create more boat
people - as Haitians might take to the seas to reach the US
coast in Florida.

"Unfortunately many brothers and sisters in Port-de-Paix
will not come down to Port-au-Prince, they will take to the
sea, they will become boat people."

"I want Haitians to stay in Haiti so they can vote in
elections, maybe before next November," the president said.


US Secretary of State Colin Powell has given Haitian
opposition leaders until 2200 GMT to sign up to a
power-sharing plan - but they are expected to reject it,
says the BBC's Stephen Gibbs in Port-au-Prince.

Haiti's neighbours have said they will not accept the
overthrow of the democratically elected Mr Aristide, but
his opponents accuse him of rigging elections four years
ago and have demanded he stand down.


Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/americas/3517837.stm

Published: 2004/02/24 17:55:18 GMT

© BBC MMIV


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