19166: Lemieux: BBC: Haiti power-sharing plan rejected (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: JD Lemieux <lxhaiti@yahoo.com>

 Story from BBC NEWS
Published: 2004/02/25 05:56:28 GMT

Haiti power-sharing plan rejected
Haiti's political opposition has rejected a US-backed
power-sharing plan aimed at ending the country's crisis.
They have refused to take part in any government which
includes President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, and insist he
must resign.

Mr Aristide - who had agreed to the plan - has called for
international help to end the rebel uprising.

The rebels control much of the north of the country and
threaten to move into the capital Port-au-Prince within
days.

The political opposition, which does not back the armed
rebellion, said it would accept nothing short of Mr
Aristide's resignation.

"We sent our position and a signed letter saying no to the
proposal," Paul Denis of the opposition Democratic Platform
told the Associated Press.

Bloodbath warning

The announcement came after a deadline expired for them to
respond to the plan. That deadline had been extended for 24
hours on Monday in the hope of reaching an agreement.


The plan would leave President Aristide in place until
2006, but with reduced powers.
Mr Aristide appealed for foreign intervention to prevent a
bloodbath in the event of a rebel attack on Port-au-Prince.


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

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

The stalemate in the peace efforts has caused alarm among
the international community.

The UK and Australia on Tuesday urged their citizens to
leave the country following similar warnings from countries
including the US, which has sent marines to protect its
embassy.

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

France's United Nations Ambassador Jean-Marc de La Sabliere
said diplomats were considering proposing "a police force,
or a civilian force" for approval by the UN Security
Council.

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

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 BBC's Stephen Gibbs in Port-au-Prince says rebel
leaders have been speaking in confident mood about the type
of rule they aim to establish if, as they intend, they take
over.
They say that the army would be reformed but that their
government would not be a military one.

Haiti's neighbours have said they will not accept the
overthrow of the democratically-elected Mr Aristide, whose
is accused by his opponents of rigging elections four years
ago.

The Dominican Republic has sent 1,200 troops to reinforce
its shared border with Haiti, AP quoted military spokesman
Col Juan Julio Tejeda as saying.


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

Published: 2004/02/25 05:56:28 GMT

© BBC MMIV


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