19215: (Chamberlain) Haiti-Uprising (later story) (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

   By MICHAEL NORTON

   PORT-AU-PRINCE, Feb 25 (AP) -- The leader of armed rebels who have
overrun half of Haiti said Wednesday he wants to "give a chance to peace"
and indicated his troops would hold off attacking the capital to see if
President Jean-Bertrand Aristide will resign.
   A U.N. Security Council meeting on Haiti was scheduled for Thursday.
President Bush said the United States is encouraging the international
community to provide a strong "security presence," and France said a peace
force should be established immediately for deployment once a political
agreement is reached.
   The rebels are in control of Haiti's second-largest city, Cap-Haitien,
where their leader, Guy Philippe, told The Associated Press on Wednesday
that they were taking a wait-and-see approach to proposals to send
international peacekeepers.
   "If they do not attack the Haitian people, we won't attack them," he
said. "If they come to help us to remove Mr. Aristide, they will be
welcome."
   Philippe estimated his rebel force had grown from a couple of hundred to
5,000 with new recruits and more ex-soldiers joining the 3-week-old popular
uprising to oust Aristide, and said they were ready to fight.
   Asked when they planned to move on Port-au-Prince, he said: "We're
ready. We just want to give a chance to peace," indicating they would hold
off. "We're ready to talk to anyone. The only one the country doesn't want
is Mr. Aristide."
   Asked how long they were willing to wait, Philippe said the decision was
not his alone. "We have 10 people who make the military decisions," he
said, declining to list them. "I'm speaking for them."
   Philippe has given various deadlines for his threatened attack on the
city, most recently this coming Sunday, his 36th birthday.
   With diplomats trying to find a political solution, foreigners tried to
flee Haiti on Wednesday, some guarded by U.S. Marines, as looting erupted
in the capital. Panic overtook the city, although there was no sign of the
rebels.
   As the rebels plotted their moves, leaders of Haiti's political
opposition asked the international community to help ensure a "timely and
orderly" departure of Aristide.
   French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin urged the "immediate"
establishment of an international civilian force.
   "This force would be charged with assuring the restoration of public
order and support actions in the field of the international community," de
Villepin said in a statement that stopped short of calling for Aristide's
resignation.
   "As far as President Aristide is concerned, he bears grave
responsibility for the current situation," de Villepin said. "It's his
decision, it's his responsibility. Every one sees that this is about
opening a new page in the history of Haiti."
   France also said it wants human rights observers sent to its former
colony and a "long term" engagement of international aid aimed at
reconstructing its economy.
   Jamaica's U.N. ambassador, Stafford O. Neil, said at the United Nations
it might be possible to dispatch a small "interposition force" to keep the
rebels and Aristide supporters apart.
   One U.N. diplomat noted the rebels can only come to Port-au-Prince by
two roads, so placing such a force would be relatively easy and would buy
time for a political solution.
   De Villepin said he was to meet Friday in Paris with representatives of
the government and the opposition. Opposition leader Mischa Gaillard,
however, said it was unclear when they would be able to leave Haiti because
of the political chaos.
   Roads all over Port-au-Prince were blocked by dozens of flaming
barricades, shops were shuttered and hotels were barred against looters.
   The roadblocks were intended to stop the rebels who began the uprising
Feb. 5, but militants at the barricades also used guns and stones to stop
cars and loot them of handbags, luggage and cell phones. Police did not
intervene.
   Overnight, a car dealership on the airport road was looted and torched.
A suburban bar was set ablaze, and nearby shops were looted, along with a
private food warehouse in the Cite Soleil seaside slum.
   American Airlines delayed three of its five daily flights to the United
States because crew and passengers were trying to get through the
roadblocks. Air Jamaica canceled its flights to Haiti.
   Guy Lockrey, an auto worker from Flint, Mich., abandoned his car at a
barricade and headed to the airport on foot with his suitcase when police
picked him up.
   "We didn't feel any tension until we got close to the capital," said
Lockrey, who had been helping to build a church in west-central Haiti.
   U.S. Marines, who arrived Monday, were to escort a convoy of U.N.
personnel. The United Nations ordered all nonessential staff and family to
leave.
   Britain and Australia have urged their citizens to leave, following
similar warnings from the United States, France and Mexico. There are about
30,000 foreigners in Haiti, 20,000 of them Americans.
   Canada and the Dominican Republic sent small teams of troops to protect
their embassies. Canadian Maj. Mike Audette said the Canadians would join
soldiers sent Tuesday to prepare for the possible evacuation of more than
1,000 Canadians.
   The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints evacuated the last of
its 120 missionaries. "We're hoping to come back when there's peace," said
Joel Tougas, a church elder from Deep Cove, Canada.
   On Tuesday, Aristide warned that thousands could die if rebels tried to
take the capital. At least two men were shot to death Wednesday in
Cap-Haitien -- one for allegedly looting, another for supporting Aristide,
and the Red Cross raised the overall death toll to 80, at least half of
them police.
   The opposition coalition rejected an international peace plan that
diplomats had billed as a last chance for peace. Aristide on Saturday
accepted the plan, under which he would remain as president but with
diminished powers, sharing the government with his political rivals.
   "It is absolutely necessary for the international community to accompany
the country in its quest for a mechanism that will allow for a timely and
orderly departure of Jean-Bertrand Aristide," said a statement from the
opposition Democratic Platform coalition.
   It appeared the international community was reconsidering its insistence
that Aristide remain president. Two Western diplomats said they and
colleagues were preparing a request to ask Aristide to resign.
   An opposition politician said foreign diplomats told the Democratic
Platform not to say that the international community had rejected their
counterproposal.
   The counterproposal, sent Tuesday to Secretary of State Colin Powell,
would install a Supreme Court justice as interim president and ensure
Aristide's "orderly departure."
   In Washington, the top U.S. envoy for the hemisphere, Roger Noriega,
told legislators that if a political solution cannot be reached, "they'll
consider many things, they'll consider a whole gamut of options, but they
do not want to go in and simply prop up Aristide," according to Rep.
Lincoln Diaz-Balart, R-Fla.
   Bush indicated an international force may be needed to provide security
in Haiti, possibly as a way to enforce a diplomatic and political solution.
   White House spokesman Scott McClellan said various nations are prepared
to "police" a political solution to the violence. "We're working with the
international community on these efforts and the international community
has made it clear that there would be a police force that could assist or
that would help with a political solution, and our commitment is to assist
in those efforts," he said.
   Bush reiterated that the U.S. Coast Guard will turn back any Haitian
refugees trying to reach American shores.