19133: (Chamberlain) Haiti-Uprising (later story) (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

   By MARK STEVENSON

   PORT-AU-PRINCE, Feb 24 (AP) -- Haiti's president urgently appealed for
the world's help Tuesday to avert a bloodbath and a new exodus of boat
people as rebels threatened the capital. Despite last-ditch diplomacy, an
opposition coalition rejected a U.S.-backed peace plan.
   Supporters of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide armed with old rifles and
pistols built junkpile barricades blocking the road into Port-au-Prince,
setting some of the barriers ablaze with burning tires.
   The opposition rejected a peace plan that would have kept Aristide as
president, but with diminished powers and compelled to share government
with his rivals.
   "We sent our position (paper) and a signed letter saying no to the
proposal," opposition leader Paul Denis told The Associated Press. He said
the letters from the Democratic Platform were delivered to David Lee of
Canada, the Organization of American States representative in Haiti.
   "There will be no more delays. Our answer remains the same. Aristide
must resign," said Maurice Lafortune, president of the Haitian Chamber of
Commerce that is a member of the Democratic Platform, following a coalition
meeting.
   After meeting all day Tuesday, the opposition coalition said it would
officially announce its decision at a news conference Wednesday morning.
   Secretary of State Colin Powell on Monday had asked the opposition
leaders to delay their formal response for 24 hours -- until 5 p.m. Tuesday
-- and they said he had sought to assure them that the international
community would call for Aristide to step down if he did not honor any
agreement.
   The neighboring Dominican Republic sent 1,200 extra troops to patrol its
border with Haiti, said military spokesman Col. Juan Julio Tejeda Madera.
He declined to provide the total number of troops at the 225-mile border
and said he didn't expect a mass influx of refugees, "but we are ready."
   At a news conference, Aristide warned that if rebels try to take the
capital, the death toll would be high. So far, at least 70 people have been
killed in the three-week uprising.
   "Should those killers come to Port-au-Prince, you may have thousands of
people who may be killed," Aristide said, adding the rebels had taken their
fight overnight to the northwest town of Port-de-Paix. "We need the
presence of the international community as soon as possible."
   Aristide's followers have become more aggressive and have armed
themselves since Haiti's small and demoralized police force fled the rebel
advance. The insurgents have torched more than 20 police stations across
northern Haiti since the uprising erupted Feb. 5.
   At the National Palace, where Aristide made his pleas in French,
English, Spanish and Creole, only a few police officers were visible. But
an official said there were about 100 guarding the presidential seat.
   Aristide said he was not calling for a military intervention, but rather
for more assistance in training and equipping Haiti's police under an
existing OAS agreement. Previous requests have been ignored as countries,
including the United States, accuse Aristide of politicizing the police
force, ignoring corruption among officers and using the police and armed
militants to crush dissent. Aristide denied those charges.
   On Tuesday, he said rebels had attacked Port-de-Paix. "The criminals and
terrorists went to the north, to Port-de-Paix, and burned private and
public buses, killing people," he said.
   Independent Radio Metropole said a disgruntled street gang had attacked
the town, and the police fled.
   The insurrection has bred chaos in Haiti, where more than half the
country and half of the 8 million people are beyond the reach of central
government authority. The uprising was begun by one of the street gangs
that says it was armed by Aristide to terrorize his opponents in Gonaives,
Haiti's fourth-largest city.
   ActionAid agency warned of looming hunger and health crisis. It said
only a private hospital is operating in Port-au-Prince, and that food
prices in the capital are rising.
   Police sources in Port-au-Prince said Aristide adviser Jean-Claude
Jean-Baptiste fled the country Monday. Jean-Baptiste, said to be the
liaison between Aristide and armed gangs, went to the Dominican Republic,
the sources said. A diplomat there said he was in Cuba.
   French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin is to meet this week in
Paris with representatives of the Haitian government and the opposition to
try to resolve the crisis.
   Western diplomats in Port-au-Prince confirmed Tuesday that Aristide had
asked France for a military intervention last week, though Aristide denies
this.
   French President Jacques Chirac said his country is ready to consider
contributing to any eventual peacekeeping force in its former colony, but
only one approved by the United Nations.
   Britain and Australia on Tuesday urged their citizens to get out of
Haiti, following warnings to leave from the United States, France and
Mexico. There are about 30,000 foreigners in Haiti, 20,000 of them
Americans.
   The United States sent 50 combat-ready Marines to Port-au-Prince on
Monday to protect the U.S. Embassy and staff.
   White House spokesman Scott McClellan said U.S. planes were patrolling
Haitian shores to guard against any possible surge in boat people. "We
continue to carefully monitor that situation, but we've not seen any
indication to indicate a surge in migration at this point," he said, making
clear any migrants caught would be returned home.
   Aristide urged Haitians to come to Port-au-Prince.
   "Unfortunately many brothers and sisters ... will take to the sea, they
will become boat people," he said.
   Most boat people want to go to the United States and many are picked by
the U.S. Coast Guard and returned home. Others land in the Bahamas and
Cuba. On Monday, 32 Haitian boat people landed in Jamaica, bringing to 62
the number who have arrived there in the past 10 days.
   Jamaica has not seen numbers like that since the flood of boat people
that fled a brutal military dictatorship in Haiti from 1991-1994. Then,
tens of thousands of refugees reached Florida.
   In 1994, Washington sent 20,000 troops in 1994 to end the dictatorship,
restore Aristide to power and halt the exodus to Florida. But the Bush
administration has made clear it has no appetite for another large-scale
military adventure in Haiti.
   ------
   Associated Press reporter Michael Norton contributed to this story.