|
Aristide rejects french calls to resign Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/8067130.htmhttp://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/8067130.htm
Posted on Sat, Feb. 28, 2004
Aristide rejects French call to resign; violence halts near capital
By Trenton Daniel, Nancy San Martin and Martin Merzer
Knight Ridder Newspapers
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti - The street corner executions and other turmoil that raged through Haiti's capital came to an abrupt halt on Saturday, apparently on the order of embattled President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.
Saying that Aristide controls the militants who've inflicted death and pain on the capital, French officials for the first time called without equivocation for his resignation.
"The time has come, Aristide must go. He must resign," a senior official at the French Foreign Ministry told Knight Ridder.
French officials said Panama was willing to grant Aristide asylum. Panamanian officials said they'd consider such a request. By Saturday, Aristide still ruled Port-au-Prince, a capital in the cross hairs of rebel forces, but he ruled little else in Haiti.
Aristide firmly rejected such demands. "Out of the question," he said.
Virtually all-commercial flights to Haiti have been canceled, and the U.S. Embassy told the 20,000 Americans still in Haiti that because safe passage overseas or across the border to the Dominican Republic couldn't be assured, they should seek "safe haven" within the country.
U.S. military officials made contingency plans to dispatch Marines to protect Americans and handle other duties if that becomes necessary.
In another development, the U.S. Coast Guard repatriated another 336 Haitian migrants on Saturday, bringing to 867 the number returned in two days. In all of January, before the rebellion began, the Coast Guard intercepted 148 Haitian migrants.
Most observers, however, expected the respite to be temporary.
Rebels have ejected the government from most of northern and central Haiti and are within 25 miles of the capital. They've threatened to attack Port-au-Prince within days or lay siege to it.
"The only thing that is left is Port-au-Prince," Butteur Metayer, a rebel leader, told Knight Ridder in the north-central city of Gonaives. He often walks through the city holding a machete above his head. "I'm the president of Gonaives now."
Metayer, whose seizure of Gonaives on Feb. 5 launched the armed insurgency, appeared to be concentrating on coordinating the push south to the capital.
More than 80 people have died so far in the rebellion, and U.S. officials and others have warned of a bloodbath if the fighting reaches Port-au-Prince.
The Coast Guard reported that the newly repatriated 336 Haitians had been intercepted aboard two boats. Rising numbers of Haitian migrants have been seized recently. Some 531 were repatriated on Friday.
One of the migrants who returned on Saturday said 104 people left the southern town of Petit-Goave on Wednesday. A Coast Guard cutter picked them up near the northwestern tip of Haiti, the migrant said.
The refugees offered various rationales for their desperate flight, saying they left because of economic deprivation and political strife.
"I don't know if it was Lavalas or other people, but they were beating people and shooting," said Franzie Batichon, 18, referring to members of Aristide's ruling party. Batichon said his father paid about $100 for the trip.
The U.S. Embassy, reminding Aristide of his "honor, legacy and reputation," demanded late Friday that he order followers to cease "this blind violence."
A few hours later, Aristide asked loyalists to end "acts of looting and violence," which they did.
But he also ordered followers to be alert for rebel attacks and to man roadblocks at night, an order some observers said militants could interpret as an endorsement of reprisal killings under the guise of defensive actions.
"Our duty as a people is to be on guard so they do not catch us by surprise," Aristide said. "We can put up barricades at night to ensure they don't attack us."
In addition to Saturday's call by the French for Aristide's resignation, Secretary of State Colin Powell and other U.S. officials have signaled that the Bush administration no longer supports him.
The French officials said representatives of Aristide's government were told in Paris that any agreements with France, including one that called for the creation of an international police force if Aristide agreed to share power with his opponents, were rendered "void" by the anarchy that swept the capital on Friday.
Now, any international force must wait for Aristide to step down, the French said, because acting before that would help preserve a presidency that's no longer legitimate.
The official said that Panama has agreed to grant asylum to Aristide and that he has "millions (of U.S. dollars) to live on."
---
(Knight Ridder correspondents Susannah A. Nesmith, Charles Rabin and Stewart Stogel contributed to this report.)
---
(c) 2004, Knight Ridder/Tribune Information Services.
-----
PHOTOS (from KRT Photo Service, 202-383-6099): HAITI
|
|
