19277: (Chamberlain) Haiti rebels say attack on capital is imminent (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

     By Alistair Scrutton and Jim Loney

    PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti, Feb 26 (Reuters) - Armed rebels who have overrun
half of Haiti warned on Thursday of an imminent attack on the capital and
told President Jean-Bertrand Aristide to leave his national palace
immediately.
     Barricades littered the garbage-strewn streets before an expected
attack by the rebels, many former soldiers who accuse Aristide of being a
corrupt thug. But fewer pro-Aristide gang members roamed the streets than a
day earlier, when motorists were shaken down for money and cellphones at
the roadblocks.
     Schools were closed and shops were shuttered as many residents stayed
home. Foreigners and Haitians crammed the airport to flee, fearing flights
to and from the country could soon be suspended.
     "The attack is imminent and I ask the population to stay home when we
attack Port-au-Prince," rebel leader Guy Philippe told local radio from Cap
Haitien, Haiti's second largest city that was taken by rebels last weekend.
     "I advise President Aristide to leave the national palace immediately,
we will attack shortly at the national palace and capture him," the former
police chief and soldier said.
     A negotiated end seems distant. Opposition political groups, who
distance themselves from the rebels, insist Aristide must quit, throwing a
wrench in U.S-backed efforts to bring an end to the conflict with a power
sharing accord.
     A three-week insurgency in the America's poorest nation has set
Aristide's 4,000-man police force against hundreds of insurgents.
     Aristide disbanded the army in 1994 when he returned to office after
being ousted in a 1991 military coup and so far police resistance has
melted away in the face of attacks by rebels, who are often welcomed by
inhabitants.
     More than 60 people have died in the Caribbean country in clashes that
began on Feb. 5 when the rebels, a collection of gangs and well-armed
former soldiers, began the revolt by overrunning the western city of
Gonaives.
     Former colonial power France has proposed setting up an international
police force to restore order in Haiti, which would support a government of
national unity.
     U.S. President George W. Bush has also said the deteriorating
situation in Haiti may require an international security presence, once a
political deal is reached.
     Aristide warned on Tuesday that a rebel advance on the capital could
result in a bloodbath and that Haitians could take to the sea. Tens of
thousands of Haitians fled political turmoil in boats and tried to reach
Florida in the early 1990s.
     U.S. authorities were investigating a possible hijack after the Coast
Guard intercepted a freighter off Miami on Wednesday with 21 Haitians on
board. The boat's master had called for help and authorities boarded the
vessel without incident after four shotguns and a handgun were handed over.
     The U.S. Coast Guard also said it was holding some Haitian migrants on
its cutters at sea, but did not give any details.
     Bush said on Wednesday that had instructed the Coast Guard to turn
back any fleeing Haitians seeking to land on U.S. shores.
     Aristide, a former parish priest, became the country's first freely
elected president in 1991 and was reelected in 2000. But political
opponents have accused him of human rights violations and corruption.