19127: (Chamberlain) Aristide warns of boat exodus (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

     By Jim Loney and Alistair Scrutton

     PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti, Feb 24 (Reuters) - Beleaguered Haitian
President Jean-Bertrand Aristide said on Tuesday that rebels had attacked
another city in the north and that the violence could spark an exodus of
boat people to the United States.
     With insurgents controlling half of the country of 8 million people
and promising to march on the capital within days, civilians barricaded
roads into Port-au-Prince with buses and old refrigerators.
     Efforts to find a political solution were moving slowly, with the
United States awaiting a response from opposition politicians to a
power-sharing deal, already agreed by Aristide, which it hoped could defuse
the conflict.
     On the streets of the capital residents anticipating possible attacks
shook their fists at cars that tried to pass the barricades. More than 60
people have died in clashes across the country so far.
     "Last night criminals, terrorists and killers went to the northwest of
the country, Port-de-Paix, and there they burned public and private houses,
killing innocent people," Aristide told a news conference in the
presidential palace.
     "We may have more Haitians leaving by boat to Florida," he said,
apparently trying to touch on U.S. fears of a repeat of the exodus in the
early 1990s, when tens of thousands of Haitians fled political violence and
tried to reach America.
     Port-de-Paix, a city of about 100,000, is a traditional exit point for
Haitians leaving for Florida by boat.
     The United States, which intervened to restore Aristide to power in
1994, has been reluctant to send in forces to help restore order, saying a
political solution is needed.
     Aristide has appealed for international help for the outgunned police,
who number only 4,000 and have appeared on continual retreat since Feb. 5,
when gangs that formerly supported Aristide and ex-soldiers began their
revolt.
     The U.S. Coast Guard has not reported an unusual number of boat people
setting out on the 600-mile (966-km) journey northwest toward Florida,
although just over 100 people have arrived by boat in Jamaica, west of
Haiti.
     Washington, which sent 50 Marines on Monday to protect U.S. facilities
there, has urged U.S. citizens to leave the country. Britain also told its
citizens to leave, warning of a "highly volatile security situation."
     U.S. Marines took up positions around the U.S. Embassy complex in
Port-au-Prince, including on rooftops, on Tuesday.
     The airport at Port-au-Prince has been packed with people, including
U.S. missionaries, clamoring for flights out of Haiti, whose 200 years of
independence from France has been blighted by political upheavals.
     Opposition political parties and civil groups, who insist Aristide
quit but distance themselves from the two-week-old uprising, had been given
a Tuesday afternoon deadline to respond to a U.S.-backed plan that would
keep the president in office.
     Even if they did agree to a deal -- which appeared unlikely -- it was
unclear whether it would halt rebels, whose dozens of professional-looking
former soldiers pose a more serious threat to Aristide.
     The rebels, who include former pro-Aristide gangs, have taken over Cap
Haitien, Haiti's second-biggest city, in the north. Many Haitians, who say
Aristide runs their country with thuggery and corruption, have welcomed
them.
     In New York, rights group Human Rights Watch, calling for an
international military or police force to protect civilians, urged rebels
not to attack government loyalists, while also condemning attacks by
pro-government gangs on opposition demonstrations.
     In Port-au-Prince, several dozen people stood outside the gates of the
presidential palace shouting "Five years!," the slogan used by Aristide
supporters to call for him to remain in office until his second term
expires in 2006, as the president has said he is determined to do.