Anarchy as Aristide thugs ravage Haitian capital

Rebels were within 25 miles of Haiti’s capital Port-au-Prince today, as militants loyal to President Jean-Bertrand Aristide torched barricades, hijacked cars and looted the city’s only operating hospital.

Meanwhile, Aristide refused to step down, even as the United States urged him to give up power.

Around 2,200 US marines were put on alert as Pentagon officials weighed up the possibility of sending troops to waters off Haiti to guard against a any flood of refugees and to protect the estimated 20,000 Americans in the country.

But Aristide insisted: “I have the responsibility as an elected president to stay where I am.”

“My life is linked to eight million people,” he added, pleading for a small contingent of foreign peacekeepers to protect Haiti’s democracy.

But the international community, led by the United States, France and Canada, has been demanding Haiti’s government and opposition reach a political settlement before they will intervene.

A senior US official said the Bush administration had concluded that the best way to prevent the rebels from seizing control was for Aristide to transfer power to Supreme Court Chief Justice Boniface Alexandre, his constitutional successor. In a country where jurists are known for corruption, he is respected for his honesty.

“We urgently call upon President Aristide to issue the necessary instructions so his supporters stop this violence,” the US embassy said yesterday, adding that ”his honour, legacy and reputation are now at stake”. The US government urged all Americans still in Haiti to seek safe haven.

United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan warned Haiti’s leaders and those aspiring to leadership “that they will be held individually accountable for any breaches of international human rights and humanitarian law”.

His statement came as Aristide militants were attacking the private Canape Vert hospital that is the only hospital still operating in Port-au-Prince.

Radio stations said the militants were searching for opponents. Among patients was a journalist shot in northern Cap-Haitien on Saturday, accused of sympathising with the rebels who seized that second-largest of Haiti’s cities on Sunday.

“The US government is discouraged to report that pro-government groups have begun to burn, pillage and kill,” said the US embassy statement. “Even the hospital is under attack by armed gangs spreading terror … who are acting in the name of Jean-Bertrand Aristide.”

Anarchy spread across the city. Armed thugs waving the five-finger sign signalling the length of Aristide’s elected term to office, hijacked cars at will and robbed people at fiery barricades they said were set to guard against rebels.

Hundreds of looters pillaged Port-au-Prince’s seaport, scurrying out with boxes of melting chicken parts and pork loins strapped to their backs. Others streamed out with television sets, table lamps, furniture and other goods.

Smoke wafted from the smouldering ruins of a torched freight terminal. No police were in sight. The body of a man lay on the ground amid a layer of papers and other trash – it was unclear how he was killed.

The bodies of two executed men also lay a few blocks from the presidential National Palace.

Shops put up hurricane shutters and people stayed home behind locked doors, leaving the streets to pro-Aristide thugs.

A few police patrolled in cars, but were vastly outnumbered by the militants.

The rebels, who have overrun half of Haiti since the popular uprising erupted three weeks ago, closed in on the seaside capital, overrunning villages as police fled.

Police officers in Croix-des-Bouquets, just nine miles north east of Port-au-Prince, shed their uniforms for civilian clothes, appeared to have abandoned their guns and looked ready to flee.

Guy Philippe, commander of the motley group of rebels that has drawn hundreds of volunteers, said he intended to besiege the capital and “close the circle” around Aristide.

“We want to block Port-au-Prince totally,” he told reporters in Cap-Haitien. He said the rebels would try to cut land routes into the capital and send two boats to prevent ships from bringing in supplies.

“Port-au-Prince now ... 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.”