19222: (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) -- U.S. Marines escorted foreigners out of
the country amid widespread looting Wednesday, but the rebel leader said
the insurgents want to "give a chance to peace" and indicated his troops
would hold off attacking the capital.
   Pressure mounted for an international intervention and for President
Jean-Bertrand Aristide to step down.
   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.
   Foreigners tried to flee the country, some guarded by U.S. Marines, and
looting erupted in the capital. Aristide supporters set dozens of flaming
barricades that blocked roads throughout Port-au-Prince, and shots were
shuttered. Panic overtook the city, though there was no sign of the rebels.
   The rebels have overrun half of Haiti including its 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."
   As the rebels plotted their moves, leaders of Haiti's political
opposition rejected an international peace plan that diplomats had billed
as a last chance for peace, and 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 international force would be responsible for guaranteeing the
return to public order and supporting the international community's action
on the ground," Villepin said. "It would come to the support of a
government of national unity."
   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 come to Port-au-Prince only 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.
   The roadblocks across Port-au-Prince 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.
   Looters struck two warehouses in Port-au-Prince on Wednesday, stealing
$200,000 worth of medical equipment and food from one and $300,000 worth of
tropical wood from the other.
   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 having problems getting 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 56 non-Haitian 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.
   Aristide on Saturday accepted an international peace plan under which he
would remain as president but with diminished powers, sharing the
government with his political rivals.
   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.
   In his statement, de Villepin stopped just 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."
   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.
And he reiterated that the U.S. Coast Guard will turn back any Haitian
refugees trying to reach American shores.
   Hours later, a freighter with 22 Haitians on board was intercepted by
the Coast Guard off the coast of Miami. Coast Guard Lt. Tony Russell would
not confirm reports that the boat had been hijacked or that the Haitians
were seeking asylum.