Haiti unrest claims three more lives

THREE more people were killed in Haiti as government forces clashed with rebels, while UN Secretary General Kofi Annan said he would send a team to assess the humanitarian situation here.

The victims were three young people shot dead on Wednesday in the Haitian city of Saint Marc, 96 kilometres north of the capital Port-au-Prince.

The latest blood letting raised the death toll in the stricken Caribbean republic since February 5 to at least 46, following the deaths of two people in Saint Marc overnight.

Tensions spilled over in several other towns as the government of President Jean Bertrand Aristide struggled to win back control of towns taken by armed rebels.

In New York, Mr Annan’s spokesman said the UN chief would send a team to the Caribbean republic to assess its humanitarian situation.

He said Mr Annan is unlikely to send a special envoy to the country, preferring for now to focus on regional efforts to end the showdown between armed rebels and supporters of Mr Aristide.

Mr Aristide late Wednesday made an appeal to the opposition “to stop terrorist actions because dialogue is essential”, but again rejected calls for his resignation.

“There have been 32 coups in Haiti in 200 years of independence, but now we must go from one democratic election to another democratic election,” he told a press conference.

Mr Aristide has accused the opposition political groups of favouring a coup d’etat against him, but opposition parties distanced themselves from the armed opposition.

“We distinguish the popular movement we support, demanding the departure of Jean Bertrand Aristide, from armed rebels with whom we do not identify ourselves,” socialist Micha Gaillard, a prominent opposition political figure, said.

The corpses of three murdered youths lay sprawled on the ground in a neighbourhood of Saint Marc plagued by armed clashes between police rebels opposed to Mr Aristide. Another two people accused of being members of the opposition were burned alive in their homes overnight in this small port city, according to a local journalist. The killings were apparently in retaliation for the torching of a clinic run by a doctor whose brother is in the pro-Aristide camp, according to the journalist.

Saint Marc is one of three cities police took back on Monday from rebels who have claimed control of a dozen towns since last Thursday. The northern city of Cap-Haitien, the country’s second biggest, was without power after a food depot was looted and torched, amid increasing fears that Mr Aristide supporters would retaliate if rebels tried to take over the city.

Other businesses were also destroyed or vandalised in Cap-Haitien. Many lottery stands and restaurants apparently owned by Mr Aristide opponents have been burned down.