19136: (Chamberlain) Haitian rebels kill deal; Aristide warns of 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 rebels had attacked
another city in the north, and prospects for a settlement faded when
opponents rejected a power-sharing deal.
     Aristide, facing an armed revolt that capped months of political
protests from the opposition, also warned that the violence could spark an
exodus of boat people to the United States.
     With insurgents controlling half of the impoverished Caribbean country
of 8 million people and vowing 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 stalled as opposition politicians
rejected a power-sharing deal, already agreed by Aristide, which U.S.-led
foreign mediators hoped could defuse the conflict. 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. Witnesses there said local rebels who
seized control were celebrating in the streets, electricity and gas were in
short supply and banks were unable to open.
     The United Nations said severe malnutrition was on the rise in
northern Haiti, serious shortages of fuel were badly affecting life and the
availability of potable water "could reach a critical stage very soon."
     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 his 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.
     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 but broaden his government.
     Late on Tuesday the opposition parties sent a letter rejecting the
proposal to the Organization of American States, one of the international
groups that brokered the proposal.
     "The answer is what we had until now. Our position (that Aristide must
step down) has not changed," said opposition spokesman Denis Paul.
     Even had the opposition accepted the plan, it was not clear this would
have halted the advance by the rebels, whose dozens of professional former
soldiers pose a more serious threat.
     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 112 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."
     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.
     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.
     Rebel chief Guy Philippe said he did not intend to assume a political
role after the rebels had taken the capital, which they have vowed to do
within days.
     "We men are military men... It's for the politicians to find a
solution," Philippe said in an interview with French radio station Radio
France Internationale.
     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.