Haiti's third city falls to rebels as US and Canada pile pressure on Aristide

by Matthew Lee and Patrick Moser

Friday, February 27, 2004

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AFP): Haitian rebels on Thursday seized the country's third largest city and the United States and Canada signalled an end to support for President Jean Bertrand Aristide but the embattled leader insisted he still would not stand down.

Black smoke billowed over Port-au-Prince as dusk fell and pro-Aristide gangs returned to street barricades thrown up a day earlier to thwart any rebel advance, but nervous residents warily awaited an assault.

Rebels already control the northern half of the country after a three week insurrection that has left more than 70 dead and police said a new band of anti-Aristide rebels had on Thursday made a breakthrough in the south by taking Cayes and two smaller towns.

The main police station in Cayes, which has a population of about 125,000, was abandoned after an attack by a group calling themselves Base Resistance, police said.

Police stations in nearby Cotes de Fer and Cavaillon were also attacked by the same group and had been abandoned, police said.

A new blow to Aristide came when the United States and Canada gave the sign that it may be time for Aristide to leave, even though they had defended a mediation plan under which he would finish his two more years in office.

"I hope President Aristide will examine his position carefully and that judgments will be made as to what is best for the people of Haiti in this most difficult time," said US Secretary of State Colin Powell in Washington.

"He is the democratically elected president, but he has had difficulties in his presidency, and I think, as a number of people have commented, whether or not he is able to effectively continue as president is something that he will have to examine."

France has already said that Aristide should go and Canada also ended its support.

Canada's Foreign Minister Bill Graham said the worsening situation in Haiti had forced the international community to consider "other scenarios" but it must not force him to leave.

"So it is perhaps best for Mr Aristide to look at his responsibilities toward his people and say: 'Look it would be better that I, voluntarily, I leave'," said Graham.

"If he said that, I have said that we, Canada, we would be ready to act with other countries to assure security and order in Haiti," he added.

Despite the pressure mounting around him, Aristide reaffirmed that he was determined to finish his term.

"I will leave the palace on February 7, 2006, which is good for our democracy," he said.

"We have had 32 coups d'etat and that is enough," Aristide told CNN television.

Aristide renewed calls for international support against the insurrection and warned there could be thousands of dead and a mass exodus unless a peaceful resolution is urgently found.

US authorities said they had already intercepted 500 Haitians in the past two days in the seas off the troubled country and Caribbean nations asked an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council to immediately authorise sending an international force to Haiti.

France and Canada have said they would contribute, but the Council only agreed to consider a force.

Aristide admitted that residents of the capital were "anxious" about threats by the main rebel leader, Guy Philippe, to seize the city. The rebels already control the northern half of Haiti.

Rumors of Aristide's departure swirled through the capital. One Haitian opposition leader, Evans Paul, said Aristide would leave the country in the "next few hours or days."

But government spokesman Mario Dupuy said Paul's remarks and threats by rebels to move on Port-au-Prince were "psychological warfare".

Rebel leader Phillipe said the capital was almost entirely surrounded and that his fighters would take it within days.

Despite the government dismissal of Phillipe's threats, his success in taking the country's second-largest city, Cap-Haitien, and other territory has left residents of the capital and diplomats on edge.

Alarmed by the deteriorating security on Wednesday, diplomats in Port-au-Prince had demanded that Aristide crack down on the gangs.

And in a brief lull on Thursday, 92 United Nations and European Union officials and their families left the capital. Black-clad US Diplomatic Security agents led buses carrying the group to a special flight at Toussant Louverture International Airport.

The convoy halted at one stage when the security agents spotted a man with a gun and briefly took up combat positions. But the convoy arrived without further incident and the group boarded a special flight to neighboring Dominican Republic.

Some foreign officials remaining said they feared a countrywide killing spree if rebels and pro-Aristide gangs fight in the capital.

"Things could get very bad, very soon," one official said.

Remaining diplomatic efforts to broker an end to the crisis shifted to Paris, where the French government hoped to hold talks with representatives of Aristide on Friday, and to the UN Security Council meeting.

Jamaica's Foreign Minister Keith Desmond Knight asked the council to immediately authorize an international security force, saying the world could not stand by and watch Haiti descend into outright anarchy.

"The prevailing situation in Haiti can no longer be viewed as an internal matter," Knight said.

The council said in a statement after the meeting that it would consider a force but that it remained in favour of a negotiated political settlement to the crisis.

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