| Rebels began moving toward Haiti's capital of Port-au-Prince on Thursday and are awaiting the order to attack, a guerrilla leader told The Associated Press.
The leader, Guy Philippe, said their mission was to arrest President Jean-Bertrand Aristide if he did not resign, so he could be tried on charges ranging from corruption to murder.
"I don't want him to die. It would be too easy. He has to pay for what he has done to the Haitian people," Philippe said in an interview with the AP in Cap-Haitien, the country's second-largest city that fell to the rebels Sunday.
Pressure is mounting for Aristide to resign, with France blaming him for the chaos in its former colony in the 3-week-old rebellion and urging that he be replaced by a transitional government. The U.N. Security Council scheduled a meeting for later Thursday.
Foreigners are fleeing Haiti amid isolated looting, and President Bush said the United States is encouraging the international community to provide a strong "security presence."
"We've decided to go toward Port-au-Prince. They're on their way," said Philippe, leader of the uprising that has overrun half of Haiti and killed at least 80 people. "They're taking their places. They know what to do."
Aristide, who has shown determination to keep power, has said a rebel attack on the capital could kill thousands.
Most of the barricades that had been erected by Aristide supporters in Port-au-Prince were removed Thursday and streets were empty, except for motorists lining up for dwindling supplies of gasoline.
The rebel movement already has sleeper cells in the capital but they would be reinforced by fighters from rebel groups moving in from variety of locations in the north, Philippe said.
Asked if an attack was imminent, he said: "It doesn't mean that we're going to attack today. We're just going to take our positions and wait for the right time."
Scouts were checking "pockets of resistance," he said. That might include the government-held town of St. Marc, on the main road from Gonaives to Port-au-Prince.
On Wednesday night, rebel commander Winter Etienne and others crowded around a map of Haiti on the wall of the Mont Joli Hotel, discussing the best route to take and whether to use boats to get around St. Marc.
"It won't take a lot of days. We don't have all our lives to wait for what a dictator is going to do," Philippe said Thursday.
A government official said Aristide's National Palace was defended by about 100 officers in Haiti's force of fewer than 4,000. Philippe has boasted he now commands 5,000 men - thanks to volunteers from the scores of towns they have passed through in northern Haiti.
Philippe said Wednesday he was going to give Aristide a chance to step down. On Saturday, Aristide agreed to a U.S.-backed plan to share power, but the opposition rejected it, saying he must step down.
"We saw there was no hope for peace," Philippe said. "We spent a week waiting for this peace to come. We can't stay waiting for him to decide while his people are killing people. ... Every day, innocent people are being killed, houses are being burned."
Concerned about the increasing chaos, France called for Aristide's resignation, saying "he bears grave responsibility for the current situation."
"It's up to him to accept the consequences while respecting the rule of law," Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin said in a statement.
French diplomatic officials confirmed Thursday that de Villepin was calling for Aristide to resign.
Abel Descollines, a member of the opposition Democratic Platform coalition, praised France's statement and asked the United States and Canada to do the same.
"We hope American and Canadian authorities will rally behind the French position to help Haiti avoid a civil war," he told French RTL radio.
French Defense Ministry spokesman Jean-Francois Bureau said it was too early to discuss whether there would be a role for the military in ensuring a peaceful departure by Aristide, should he leave the island.
Aristide, a 50-year-old former slum priest, once commanded widespread support as Haiti's first democratically elected leader and savior to the poor, but he has steadily lost support as poverty deepened after his party swept flawed legislative elections in 2000 and international donors suspended aid.
De Villepin called for the establishment of a civilian peacekeeping force. "This international force would be responsible for guaranteeing the return to public order and supporting the international community's action on the ground," de Villepin said.
As order in the impoverished country of 8 million unraveled, Aristide's two daughters flew to the United States.
American Airlines delayed three of its five daily flights to the United States on Wednesday because crew and passengers had trouble passing the roadblocks. Air Jamaica canceled its flights to Haiti indefinitely.
U.N. nonessential staff and their families were being evacuated, and dozens of Mormon missionaries also left.
Canada and the Dominican Republic sent small teams of soldiers to protect their embassies.
Fearing an exodus of Haitians, the Dominican Republic doubled the number of troops along its 225-mile border with Haiti.
Haitians fled a political crisis in large numbers 12 years ago. There has been little evidence of a repeat of that situation thus far although a freighter with 21 Haitians on board was intercepted by the Coast Guard off the coast of Miami Beach. Bush has said the U.S. Coast Guard would turn back Haitian refugees reaching American shores.
French and U.S. diplomats say Aristide used police and supporters to crush dissent, contributing to the violence, and failed to fight corruption in the police and judiciary. Aristide has, for his part, accused the rebels of leading the uprising through drug-trafficking proceeds.
A convicted drug lord, meanwhile, provided damning testimony against Aristide, saying the president had profited from cocaine trafficking.
Beaudoin "Jacques" Ketant testified Wednesday in Miami after being sentenced to 27 years for money laundering and allegedly shepherding 41 tons of drugs for Colombian drug cartels through Haiti to the United States from 1987 to 1996.
"He turned the country into a narco-country," Ketant said. Ira Kurzban, an attorney for the Haitian government, dismissed the allegations from "a lying, convicted drug dealer"
Source: AP | |
