Pressure on Aristide to quit as rebels gain

REBEL forces virtually isolated Haiti President Jean Bertrand Aristide yesterday as international pressure mounted on the beleaguered leader to quit.

A new rebel group seized Haiti's third-largest city, Les Cayes, in the three-week-old uprising, and the main rebel leader said his forces were in the town of Jeremie in their first push into the country's southern peninsula.

As the United States and France made clear that Aristide should resign, the rebels freed about 67 prisoners in Mirebalais, about 25 miles northeast of Port-au-Prince, witnesses said.

"The police ran. They left everything and went into Port-au-Prince," rebel leader Guy Philippe said from his base in the northern port of Cap-Haitien. ""

Philippe said rebels want to blockade Port-au-Prince and "close the circle" around Aristide, forcing boats with food or fuel from Miami to come to Cap-Haitien, the second-largest city.

"We want to block Port-au-Prince totally," he said. "No more boats to Port-au-Prince."

That strategy would bring further misery to residents, already lining up for scarce gas and dwindling fresh produce since the rebels cut supplies from the central Artibonite district that is Haiti's breadbasket.

Philippe said his movement does not want to fight Aristide's die-hard supporters. "Port-au-Prince now, it would be very hard to take it. It would be a lot of fight, a lot of death," Philippe said. "So what we want is desperation first, so that's what we're doing now, closing the circle."

At a police station in Croix-des-Bouquets, officers shed their uniforms for civilian clothes, appeared to have abandoned their guns and were ready to flee.

People went about their business, though, with street vendors hawking goods.

In Port-au-Prince, armed Aristide loyalists set up more blazing barricades to protect the presidential palace, and some fired shots into the air. Dozens of roadblocks were erected overnight, where Aristide supporters were robbing motorists.

Robbins Jean, a 25-year-old Aristide youth organiser, criticised the international community, especially the Bush administration and France, which have strongly hinted that the president should resign.

"You tell George W Bush he is a hypocrite and an assassin because the terrorists are killing the Haitian people," Jean said, speaking near the National Palace, where hundreds of youths were armed with old rifles, pistols, machetes and even a dull, rusty axe.

"We will fight to the death," Jean said.

The international community continued to try to resolve the crisis through diplomacy, demanding a political settlement between Aristide and opposition politicians before they would agree to send peacekeepers.