Haiti crisis escalates as rebels set up country

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Friday, February 20, 2004

Haiti crisis escalates as rebels set up country

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Pressures are mounting on the embattled Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide as home rebels declared them an independent country on Thursday and the international community pledged no strong support to safeguard his presidency.

The rebels established their government and named president in Gonaives, the fourth largest city and the first stronghold they took after a bloody uprising, which left dozens of people dead and many more injured.

Buter Metayer, the rebel leader who headed the attack on government police force in Gonaives, was named president of the so-called "independent country of Artibonite," the name of the province near Gonaives.

Waving his arms and cheering to a crowd of up to 20,000 people, Metayer chanted "Alone we are weak, together we are strong."

A COUNTRY OF TURMOIL

At least 55 people have died since the rebels launched an insurgence in the city of Gonaives on Feb. 5 to oust Aristide.

Rebels have driven police out of more than a dozen towns. In an attack on Monday, the rebels stormed a police station in the central town of Hinche, killing regional police chief Jonas Maximeand his two bodyguards.

The rebels evicted the police and made the city, 130 km northeast of the capital city and near Haiti's border with the Dominican Republic, their second stronghold.

Food and fuel prices have soared, with the country's nearly 300,000 drought-stricken peasants being the most affected. Electricity and telephone services have also been cut off in many towns.

The situation has drawn widespread concerns from the international community, and Action against Hunder (ACF), a leading French non-governmental group said the violence would bring major food shortages within weeks if no international aid arrives in.

The group, which has been working in Haiti since 1988, urged that food and water distribution be set up, especially for children and the elderly.

Under the situation, Canada pledged to send 1.15 million dollars (870 million US dollars) in food and medical aid, which would be distributed by the UN World Food Program and the International Committee of the Red Cross.

NO INTENTION TO LEAVE

In the face of the escalating outcry for his resignation, Aristide said he would stay in office until the end of his term in2006.

"There is no doubt that I would be willing to die if that is what it takes to defend the country," Aristide said at a ceremony for more than a dozen dead police in the National Palace in the capital, Port-au-Prince.

The president said to his police force that with "peaceful force, moral force, civic force, constitutional force and democratic force," they would defeat the rebels.

The president expressed the determination to use peaceful means to quell the uprising and restore peace to the nation.

"A group of terrorists are breaking the democratic order, we have the responsibility to take a peaceful way and use the law and dialogue" to dismiss the situation, he said.

Reports from Port-au-Prince said the armed opposition, who demands an immediate resignation of Aristide, had disregarded continuous official calls to carry out new polls.

Haitian Ambassador to Cuba Marie Constant told a press conference Tuesday that if elections were to be held the next day in Haiti, the ruling party will get an overpowering victory, and that is the reason behind the opposition's refusal of new elections.

REQUEST FOR SUPPORT IGNORED

Eager to put an end to the crisis, Aristide appealed for help the international community.

US Secretary of State Colin Powell on Thursday said the US was open for an resignation by Aristide, if that was done constitutionally and as part of a negotiated political deal.

Powell said the Caricom plan supported by the international community calls for a resumption of dialogue between the elected government and the opposition, and an end to violence.

The step-down was not part of the plan, as under the constitution he is the president for some time to come yet, said Powell.

To resign or not is up to President Aristide and the political opposition, he added.

The US State Department said Thursday it would send a military team of three or four people in the next two days to assess security at the American embassy in Haiti. They also urged the US citizens to leave the turbulent country.

French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin proposed Tuesday to send a peacekeeping force to Haiti.

However, the French Defense Ministry declared Thursday that sending troops to Haiti is not yet on the agenda and that France gives priority to political and diplomatic solutions.

"There's no tendency in our thought to consider massive military forces to be an adequate answer. It's not on the agenda,"said ministry spokesman Jean-Francois Bureau at a press conference.

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