Haiti: Opposition rejects US peace plan

An opposition coalition, insisting that President Jean-Bertrand Aristide resign, rejected a US-backed peace plan to avert all-out civil war as Haiti’s leader urgently appealed to the world for help.

With a motley group of rebels overruning half the country and threatening the capital Port-au-Prince – led in part by Haitians accused in past massacres - yesterday’s stalemate caused alarm in the international community.

France’s United Nations ambassador Jean-Marc de La Sabliere said diplomats were considering proposing “a police force, or a civilian force” for approval by the UN Security Council.

Details were sketchy as diplomats tried to keep pace with rapidly unfolding events. Britain and Australia yesterday urged their citizens to get out of Haiti, following similar warnings from the United States, France and Mexico. There are about 30,000 foreigners in Haiti, 20,000 of them Americans.

Last-ditch efforts by US Secretary of State Colin Powell did not save the peace plan because the Democratic Platform coalition said Aristide – who has lost much popular support amid accusations he condoned corruption, failed to help the poor and brutally suppressed the opposition – must go.

The plan would have kept Aristide as president, but with diminished powers and compelled to share government with his rivals.

“We sent our position [paper] and a signed letter saying ’No’ to the proposal,” opposition leader Paul Denis told The Associated Press.

“There will be no more delays. Our answer remains the same. Aristide must resign,” said Maurice Lafortune, president of the Haitian Chamber of Commerce that is part of the Democratic Platform.

The opposition coalition said it would announce its decision officially today.

French foreign minister Dominique de Villepin was to meet representatives of the Haitian government and the opposition this week in Paris to try to resolve the escalating crisis in the former French colony.

The Dominican Republic sent 1,500 extra troops to double the number patrolling its 225-mile border with Haiti, said General Jose Miguel Soto Jimenez, the country’s top military official.

Dominican officials fear a surge of Haitian refugees, as does the United States.

White House spokesman Scott McClellan said US planes were patrolling Haitian shores to guard against boat people. “We’ve not seen any indication to indicate a surge in migration at this point,” he said, making clear any migrants caught would be returned home.

Aristide supporters armed themselves with old rifles and pistols and built junk-pile barricades to block the road into Port-au-Prince, setting some barriers ablaze with burning tyres and sending up acrid smoke.

Aristide loyalists have become more aggressive since Haiti’s small and demoralised police force fled the rebel advance. The attackers have torched more than 20 police stations across northern Haiti since the uprising erupted on February 5.

At a news conference, Aristide warned that if rebels tried to take the capital, the death toll would be high. So far, at least 70 people have been killed in the three-week uprising, about 40 of them police officers.

“Should those killers come to Port-au-Prince, you may have thousands of people who may be killed,” Aristide said, adding the rebels had taken their fight overnight to the north-west town of Port-de-Paix. “We need the presence of the international community as soon as possible.”