19382: haiti info: Rebels Close in on Haiti Capital, Chaos in Streets (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Haiti Info <hainfo@starband.net>

Rebels Close in on Haiti Capital, Chaos in Streets
26 minutes ago - Reuters
By Jim Loney and Alistair Scrutton

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (Reuters) - Rebels overran a key crossroads town and
crept closer to the Haitian capital on Friday as supporters of embattled
President Jean-Bertrand Aristide terrorized the civilian population of
Port-au-Prince.

Bands of armed Aristide loyalists roamed in trucks and cars through the
chaotic capital. A body was seen at a roadside near the Cite Soleil slum,
apparently hacked with machetes, and two more were found near the airport,
one with hands bound.

Crowds of armed men, many wearing masks, blocked dozens of intersections,
igniting piles of tires and harassing motorists. Gunfire rang through the
sprawling city.

The stage was set for a showdown between the ragtag band of former soldiers
and gang members trying to unseat Aristide, and the diminutive former priest
and one-time populist hero of Haitian democracy backed by an ill-trained,
4,000-member police force and armed supporters from the slums.

Aristide, who political opponents have long accused of corruption and
political thuggery, again vowed he would not be pushed from office and
appealed for help from foreign nations.

In Washington, U.S. defense officials said they were considering sending a
three-ship group carrying U.S. Marines to Haiti to help deal with the crisis
in the Caribbean country of 8 million, the poorest nation in the Americas.

President Bush (news - web sites), asked if Aristide should resign, pointed
to comments from Secretary of State Colin Powell (news - web sites) on
Thursday. Powell had said Aristide should "examine his position carefully,"
indicating U.S. support for him was wavering.

PRO-ARISTIDE GANG VIOLENCE

The U.S. Embassy in Port-au-Prince issued a statement late on Friday saying
pro-government groups had begun to "burn, pillage and kill" and calling on
Aristide to put a halt to it.

"The armed gangs that are spreading terror and attacking civilians ... are
acting in the name of Jean-Bertrand Aristide," said the statement, which
also called on the rebels to halt their advance on the capital.

Rebel leader Guy Philippe, a former police chief accused of plotting coups
who returned from exile in the Dominican Republic to join the three-week-old
revolt, said his men planned to cut off Port-au-Prince from the ocean.

"We going to send some boats ... to block the ships coming from Miami to
Port-au-Prince," Philippe told reporters in the country's second-biggest
city, Cap Haitien, which the rebels overran last weekend to control a large
swath of the north.

"All the boats should come and stay in Cap Haitien so starting next week
Port-au-Prince will not receive any guns or anything," said Philippe, who
has said he wanted to celebrate his 36th birthday on Sunday in the capital.

Philippe has said his men have surrounded Port-au-Prince and were awaiting
orders to attack.

A group of rebels called the "Assaillants" (Attackers) from Haiti's Central
Plateau took control of the town of Mirebalais overnight, freeing prisoners
from the local jail.

Mirebalais is about 30 miles northeast of Port-au-Prince and sits at a
junction with access to the capital, the rebel stronghold in the north, the
coastal town of Saint Marc and the border with the Dominican Republic, where
some of the rebel leaders lived in recent years.

Haitian National Police dispatched officers to Les Cayes, Haiti's
third-largest city, where they reclaimed a police station taken over by
rebels, witnesses in the city said.

PROTECTING THE PALACE

French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin told a Haitian government
delegation in Paris Aristide should quit as part of efforts to end the
rebellion, which erupted on Feb. 5 in the northwestern city of Gonaives.

The revolt has killed at least 65 people.

Aristide, who has predicted a blood bath if the rebels enter the capital,
told CNN by telephone from Port-au-Prince Washington should take a stand for
democracy in Haiti. "I think President Bush sent troops to Afghanistan (news
- web sites) ... Here we want to defend democracy. We have a common ground,"
Aristide said.

Dozens of Aristide supporters stood in the streets around the National
Palace, a stately white building surrounded by an iron fence.

"I would like to tell Guy Philippe and his band of criminals that
Port-au-Prince is not Gonaives or Cap Haitien," said Sony Joseph, an
Aristide loyalist surrounded by men with shotguns, pistols and rifles near
the palace. "They say they are coming. So we are waiting for them."

Looters hit the main port while Aristide supporters stripped a warehouse
belonging to businessman Smarck Michel, a former prime minister who turned
against Aristide, witnesses said.

A negotiated end to the crisis seemed far away.

This week, Aristide's political foes -- who have distanced themselves from
the armed revolt but share its aim of seeing Aristide gone -- rejected power
sharing and reiterated demands the president leave the palace. (Additional
reporting by Laurent Hamida in Cap Haitien and Amy Bracken and Joseph Guyler
Delva in Port-au-Prince)