19368: Lemieux: Financial Times: US prepares to send warships off Haiti's coast (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: JD Lemieux <lxhaiti@yahoo.com>

US prepares to send warships off Haiti's coast
By Salamander Davoudi in Washington and
Robert Graham in Paris
Published: February 27 2004 19:30 |
 Last Updated: February 27 2004 19:30

The Pentagon was on Friday drawing up plans to send three
warships carrying more than 2,000 US Marines to stand off
the coast of Haiti as a precautionary measure, as the
country moved closer to chaos.

Rebel factions moved closer towards the capital
Port-au-Prince on Friday, seizing the town of Mirebalais
only 30 miles away after taking the southern port of Les
Cayes, Haiti's third largest city, on Thursday.

Despite the rebel groups drawing near, Haiti's president,
Jean-Bertrand Aristide, remained determined to hold on to
power as he prepared the city for imminent siege.

"Aristide's soldiers have put barricades up around the city
and there is a heightened feeling of insecurity here," said
Hubert Morquette, country director for World Relief in
Haiti, speaking from Port-au-Prince.

"Rumours are spreading that the rebels are approaching the
capital.

Civilians have been chanting in support of the rebels, whom
they now call liberators. They say they will welcome them
with open arms."

Even though the rebels are still some distance from
Port-au-Prince, violence has already erupted on the streets
of the capital, Mr Morquette said. He added that bodies of
civilians lay in the city's streets and he believed them to
be those suspected rebel sympathisers killed by soldiers
loyal to Mr Aristide.

Mr Aristide's attempts to drum up international support
appeared to have foundered as Dominique de Villepin, the
French foreign minister, held a frosty meeting in Paris on
Friday with a delegation from the Haitian president, headed
by Joseph Philippe Antonio, his foreign minister.

The Haitians were told bluntly that the sole viable option
to end the violence was "to work towards the formation of a
transitional government of national unity" with no place
for Mr Aristide.

This message prompted Mr Antonio to cancel a planned press
conference and further indicated the Haitian president was
not yet ready to consider stepping down as he has been
urged to do by France and the US.

The United Nations High Commission for Refugees on Friday
reiterated its call for countries neighbouring Haiti to
give asylum to refugees fleeing the country. No person
escaping conflict in his home country should be sent back
without a "proper examination of their protection needs",
said a UNHCR spokesman.

President George W. Bush warned this week that Haitians
caught at sea trying to escape would be turned back.

Mr Bush also reiterated that he would support sending an
international force to Haiti "dependent on a political
settlement".

American Airlines has cancelled flights to Haiti until at
least next Wednesday and Air France has suspended flights
indefinitely because of the deteriorating security
situation.




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