Gangs armed with guns and machetes rampaged through the streets of the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince in the latest outbreak of violence, threatening desperate attempts to prevent the country spiralling out of control....
News Source: scotsman.com
Scores of foreigners were this weekend streaming out of the Caribbean state, acting on a warning from the United States to flee amid mounting violence in government-held areas and threats of new rebel attacks.
Militants loyal to President Jean-Bertrand Aristide attacked the protesters, who were demanding he resign, with barrages of shotgun fire, rocks and bottles as diplomats presented a peace plan for which government and opposition leaders have shown little enthusiasm.
At least 20 people were injured during this latest outbreak of violence in an uprising against Aristide?s government by rebels which began earlier this month.
Anti-government protesters marched down the main road leading to Port-au-Prince international airport on Friday, denouncing any plan that does not demand Aristide step down.
They were confronted by Aristide supporters who lobbed rocks and bottles and then opened fire.
About 14 people were injured and wounded, including a Haitian journalist shot twice in the back. Four foreign reporters were beaten up. One was slashed by a machete and only saved by his helmet.
Two of the key points of the international plan are disarming politically motivated street gangs and setting rules for political demonstrations.
Diplomats from a host of nations were due to arrive yesterday to persuade Haiti?s politicians to agree, apparently hoping that pressure from the two-week-old uprising that has killed more than 60 people will impel them to a compromise they have resisted for years.
The plan was presented on Friday, but even before it arrived both sides indicated reluctance.
"We don?t expect much from the delegation," said opposition spokesman Paul Denis of the team to be led by Roger Noriega, the assistant US secretary of state, who heads the Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs. "If it wants to resolve the crisis, the question of Aristide?s resignation must be on the table."
Aristide has shown determination to serve out his term that ends in February 2006 and said he could not negotiate with "terrorists", repeating charges that the opposition supports the bloody rebellion.
On Friday, his government spokesman, Mario Dupuy, said: "The government hopes the mission will be able to detach the opposition from acts and actors of violence ... the opposition has a chance to prove it is not in favour of violence and terrorism."
Aristide agreed months ago to the main tenets of the plan, then presented by the 15-nation Caribbean Community, but he has done nothing to act on it.
A key requirement is the appointment of a prime minister acceptable to both sides - something they have not been able to agree on since flawed legislative elections in 2000 were swept by Aristide?s Lavalas Party. Aristide, who won Haiti?s first free elections in a landslide in 1990, has lost support since his re-election. Haiti?s misery has deepened since international donors froze aid while Aristide is seen as condoning corruption that provides lavish lifestyles for government officials.
The former slum priest has responded to growing opposition by using police and armed gangs to stifle dissent and create a climate of fear.
In Haiti today, life appears more dangerous in places like the western port of St Marc, where radio stations reported that Aristide thugs torched 15 houses on Thursday night, starting blazes that killed three people. "Innocent people are being killed and houses are burned down every day and night in St Marc and the police are doing nothing," said American missionary Terry Snow.
In Cap-Haitien, the last major government bastion in the north, frightened police officers have barricaded themselves in their station and left the streets to armed government supporters terrorising the population.
By comparison, rebels who began their uprising on February 5 in Gonaives, a strategic crossroads to the north 70 miles north-west of Port-au-Prince, last week allowed the International Committee of the Red Cross through barricades to deliver sorely needed food and medical supplies.
"It?s okay, I think [foreigners] should leave Port-Au-Prince, Cap-Haitien and Saint Marc, where Lavalas [Aristide?s party] controls, but where we control, it?s safe," rebel leader Guy Philippe said.Both sides have carried out reprisal killings and burned down homes and businesses of alleged opponents. Philippe says the next rebel target is Cap-Haitien. He is a former police chief of that city but fled in 2000 amid charges of coup-plotting. Philippe was named on Thursday to lead an alliance of four rebel groups.
Speaking at the United Nations on Friday, French ambassador Jean-Marc de La Sabliere warned that the chaos "cannot but lead to a humanitarian catastrophe".
