19198: (Chamberlain) Human rights workers, missionaries flee Haiti (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

     By Alistair Scrutton

    PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti, Feb 25 (Reuters) - Koenraad Denayer has one of
the riskiest jobs in Haiti -- a human rights worker. So he, his wife and
baby daughter were getting on the next -- perhaps the last -- flight out of
town.
     "Human right workers fought over a decade ago to get a military
dictatorship out of Haiti. Now it looks like the army's coming backing in.
We are ripe targets," said the 32-year-old Belgian who works for the
National Coalition of Haitian Rights.
     An array of foreigners, from bearded human rights workers in T-shirts
to spotlessly dressed U.S. missionaries, crowded the capital's chaotic
international airport on Wednesday to catch a flight out of a country torn
by a three-week insurgency by armed rebels, many of them former soldiers
from Haiti's disbanded army.
     Rebels in control of half the country said this week they would be in
the capital within days to oust President Jean-Bertrand Aristide and there
was chaos in the city. Barricades set up by scared residents and
pro-Aristide gangs sprung up. Tires, concrete blocks and burned-out cars
littered the streets.
     At the airport, Haitians and foreigners tried to squeeze two or three
at a time through metal detector gates to reach the check-in desk. There
were scuffles with airport staff in the sweltering heat.
     Some people were relieved just to have reached the airport. Most were
forced to negotiate barricades often manned by nervous armed young men,
some who were reported to be robbing and threatening passersby.
     "It was miraculous we made it to the airport," said Elder Tougas, a
U.S. missionary dressed in a smart suit and tie as he loaded luggage out of
a van.
     Some U.S. missionaries -- there are about 5,000 in Haiti -- said they
were made to get out of their cars and walk before the few police still
trying to keep law and order in an anarchic city picked them up in
garbage-strewn streets.
     Pro-Aristide gangs waving pictures of their president occasionally
sped past the terminal in four-wheel-drive vehicles. Some diplomats arrived
with their own armed guards.
     Francoise Gruloos Ackerman, a worker with the U.N. Children's Fund,
arrived at the VIP hall. She was staying in Haiti but she was escorting her
son out. No luck. She said the Air France flight had been canceled after a
gang had attacked their senior company official.
     Nerves grew increasingly frayed amid rumors the terminal would soon be
closed and reports that pro-Aristide gangs had stopped people leaving or
entering the airport compound. Rumors whirled that two American Airlines
flights to Miami would be the last out of town.
     Clasping his ticket in his hand, Emmanuel Pic, a French aid worker,
prepared to board a flight with his wife and three children.
     "Leaving Haitian friends is very difficult," he said. But you know, I
have a family."
     His 5-year-old son stood quiet in the chaotic terminal, sucking on his
teddy bear.