19283: (Craig) UN Wire: Zero Hour In Haiti (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Dan Craig <hoosier@att.net>

Zero Hour In Haiti; U.S., France Backing International Troops
Thursday, February 26, 2004

An attack by Haitian rebels on the capital of Port-au-Prince and
President Jean-Bertrand Aristide appeared imminent today, with rebel
leader Guy Philippe warning that his ragtag army was "going straight for
the National Palace" to arrest Aristide.  The U.N. Security Council,
meanwhile, was scheduled to meet today on how to handle the escalating
crisis.

The city was tense, with Aristide's supporters putting up barricades on
the streets in anticipation of the rebel advance and foreigners fleeing
the country as looting broke out.

Philippe warned Haitians to stay inside if fighting nears the capital,
saying, "It will be over very soon," contradicting an earlier message
that he wanted to see if Aristide resigns and to "give a chance to
peace" (Paisley Dodds, Associated Press
<http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=589&ncid=734&e=3&u=/ap/20040226/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/haiti_uprising>/Yahoo!
News, Feb. 26).

The Los Angeles Times
<http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-haiti26feb26,1,1567434.story?coll=la-home-headlines> reports
that the streets of Port-au-Prince were nearly deserted, bereft of the
normally tightly packed vehicles and people.  Pro-Aristide gangs had set
up roadblocks, stopping cars filled with fleeing foreigners and either
forcing them to pay to pass through or stealing their luggage and
communications equipment.

"Things are very bad, " a 33-year-old mother of five was quoted as
saying.  "The streets aren't safe.  No one is going out."

The capital's main police compound was also virtually empty -- a sign
that Aristide may have no official armed support in the city outside of
the gangs.  Police in other cities fled their posts ahead of the rebel
advance (Carol Williams, Los Angeles Times, Feb. 26).

As the situation deteriorated, both the United States and France said
they would support sending in international peacekeeping troops, with
Washington favoring an international security presence after a political
settlement is reached and Paris agitating for quicker action
(Dodds, AP/Yahoo! News).

U.S. President George W. Bush said that while the United States was
hopeful a power-sharing agreement could still be worked out between
Aristide and opposition parties, it was more interested in stemming a
potential influx of Haitian refugees to U.S. shores.  "We will turn back
any refugee that attempts to reach our shore, and that message needs to
be very clear to the Haitian people," Bush said, adding the United
States has an "effective strategy" to deal with any Haitian refugees.

French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin said an international
peacekeeping force should be established immediately -- one that would
be charged with "assuring the restoration of public order and support
actions in the field of the international community."  France has
invited Aristide and rebel leaders to Paris to discuss a settlement
(George Gedda, AP
<http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=589&ncid=734&e=1&u=/ap/20040226/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/us_haiti>/Yahoo!
News, Feb. 26).

De Villepin also implied that France -- Haiti's former colonial
master -- no longer supports Aristide.  "As for President Aristide, he
bears heavy responsibility for the current situation.  It is up to him
to accept the consequences while respecting the rule of law.  Everyone
sees quite well that a new page must be opened in Haiti's history," de
Villepin said (Doods, AP/Yahoo! News).

The U.N. Security Council yesterday called on the opposition to
accept the power-sharing plan proposed by the Caribbean Community
<http://www.caricom.org/> and the Organization of American States
<http://www.oas.org/>, and urged both sides to respect human rights and
stop using violence to advance political goals (U.N. release
<http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=9888&Cr=haiti&Cr1=>, Feb.
25).

The plan, which was rejected by the opposition on Tuesday, would keep
Aristide in power, but with diminished authority and a shared government
(U.N. Wire, Feb. 25).

"Implementation of the plan offers the best opportunity to restore
confidence and dialogue and for Haitians to resolve differences
peacefully, democratically and constitutionally," said the council
president for the month, Chinese Ambassador Wang Guangya.  He
also warned that any party responsible for human rights violations
"should be held accountable" (U.N. release).

Washington faces a dilemma in that it neither wants to prop up Aristide,
who is seen by his opponents as steadily undermining democracy in Haiti,
nor will it accept his violent ouster in a region beset by shaky
institutions, the Wall Street Journal reports.

The Bush administration especially is not prepared to accept a leader
who could be worse than Aristide, the report says.  An especially odious
choice, it says, is Louis-Jodel Chamblain, who helped form the Front for
the Advancement of Progress of Haiti, or FRAPH  -- a right-wing militia
that ousted Aristide in 1991, killing hundreds of people in the process,
then ruled Haiti until U.S. troops restored Aristide to power in 1994.

Chamblain, who returned from the Dominican Republic to help lead the
current revolt, was convicted in absentia for the murder of a Haitian
pro-democracy leader and for his connection with a massacre of 25 people
in 1994.

Also waiting in the wings is Philippe, who led the rebels that took the
northern city of Cap-Haitien on Saturday and was the Cap-Haitien police
chief under Aristide until he fled to the Dominican Republic in 2000,
accused of drug trafficking and plotting a coup against his boss.

Seemingly stuck in between the rebel leaders and Aristide is the
Democratic Platform, an umbrella opposition group comprising unions,
political parties, peasant, church, business and civic groups.  The DP
says it does not agree with the rebels' violent tactics, but concurs
that Aristide must go.

One of the leaders of the DP, Andy Apaid, said the insurgents have
promised to put down their guns should Aristide leave.  "The minute he
goes, it would take the wind out of their sails," he was quoted as
saying, although he acknowledged that the country could fall into chaos
if the situation continues to unravel (Jose de Cordoba, Wall Street
Journal, Feb. 26).