Haiti rebels 'going to arrest Aristide'

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Thursday, February 26, 2004

Haiti rebels 'going to arrest Aristide'

Foreigners fled Haiti amid looting in parts of the capital Wednesday as pressure mounted for an international intervention and for President Jean-Bertrand Aristide to step down.

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Foreigners fled Haiti amid looting in parts of the capital Wednesday as pressure mounted for an international intervention and for President Jean-Bertrand Aristide to step down.

Rebel leader Guy Philippe told the press the insurgents want to "give a chance to peace," indicating his troops would hold off, for now, attacking Port-au-Prince. But then late Wednesday he called a radio station with more warlike words.

"We're going straight for the National Palace where we're going to arrest Aristide," Philippe said in a call to Radio Vision 2000 in the capital from the rebel-held city of Cap-Haitien in the north. "It will be over very soon."

A U.N. Security Council meeting on Haiti was scheduled for Thursday. President Bush said the United States is encouraging the international community to provide a strong "security presence," and France said a peace force should be established immediately for deployment once a political agreement is reached.

Foreigners tried to flee the country and isolated looting erupted in the capital. Aristide supporters set dozens of barricades that blocked roads throughout Port-au-Prince, though there was no sign of the rebels.

The rebels have overrun half of Haiti. In the AP interview earlier Wednesday, Philippe said the rebels were taking a wait-and-see approach to proposals to send international peacekeepers.

"If they do not attack the Haitian people, we won't attack them," he said. "If they come to help us to remove Mr. Aristide, they will be welcome."

Philippe estimated his rebel force had grown from a couple of hundred to 5,000 with new recruits and more ex-soldiers joining the 3-week-old popular uprising to oust Aristide, and said they were ready to fight.

As the rebels plotted their moves, leaders of Haiti's political opposition rejected an international peace plan that diplomats had billed as a last chance for peace, and asked the international community to help ensure a "timely and orderly" departure of Aristide.

On Tuesday, Aristide warned that thousands could die if rebels tried to take the capital. At least two men were shot to death Wednesday in Cap-Haitien �� one for allegedly looting, another for supporting Aristide, and the Red Cross raised the overall death toll to 80, at least half of them police.

Aristide on Saturday accepted an international peace plan under which he would remain as president but with diminished powers, sharing the government with his political rivals.

It appeared the international community was reconsidering its insistence that Aristide remain president. Two Western diplomats said they and colleagues were preparing a request to ask Aristide to resign.

Source: Agencies

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