Foreigners flee Haiti as uprising spreads

Scores of foreigners including missionaries and aid workers streamed out of Haiti today, fleeing a surging rebellion and mounting violence in government-held areas.

Police deserted northern outposts and rebels threatened new attacks.

Pro-government militants torched 15 homes in the western port of St Marc overnight, and three people died in the blazes, independent Radio Galaxie reported.

A day after the US government urged Americans to leave the poor Caribbean nation, more than 200 Americans, French and Canadians stood in a long queue at Toussaint Louverture International Airport.

“We knew that it was right for us to leave. It’s just hard,” said Nancy McWilliams, an 18-year-old Canadian, who abandoned a volunteer job at a children’s home.

The US government placed air marshals on all American flights in and out of Haiti, said officials in Washington concerned about the possibility of an airline hijacking amid the chaos.

While no foreigners have been injured or killed in the uprising that since February 5 has claimed the lives of at least 60 Haitians, about 40 of them police officers, armed men have threatened missionaries and journalists.

The newly appointed leader of a loose alliance of three rebel groups, Guy Philippe, said he plans to attack the northern port city of Cap-Haitien during carnival celebrations that start today and run through to Tuesday.

Philippe was President Jean-Bertrand Aristide’s police chief in Cap-Haitien but fled in 2000 when he was accused of plotting a coup.

Aristide said he could not negotiate with ”terrorists,” though opposition leaders deny his charges that they back the rebels.

“If you are talking about the opposition that is publicly supporting terrorists, don’t think I will have the irresponsibility of handing them over such a (prime ministerial) post,” he told Radio Canada.

Opposition leader Evans Paul said “It will be difficult for us to accept any proposal that doesn’t include Aristide’s resignation.”