Rebels hunt down militant Aristide supporters

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti: Militant government loyalists set flaming barricades yesterday to block the road to Port-au-Prince and 50 combat-ready US Marines arrived in the Haitian capital as rebels threatened to attack.

Frightened Cabinet ministers were asking friends for places to hide, senior government sources said. With rifles drawn, 20 Marines in combat gear and helmets came off the US Airforce transport plane at Toussaint Louverture International Airport and rushed to make a secure perimeter around the aircraft before the other Marines got off. In the northern port of Cap-Haitien, rebels hunted down militants loyal to President Jean-Bertrand Aristide and residents went on a rampage of reprisals and looting that began after rebels seized the city of 500,000 people with little resistance on Sunday. Rebel leader Guy Philippe said his men could do nothing to stop the looting, and blamed Aristide’s government for leaving most of Haiti’s 8 million people hungry and desperate. Looters stole and also torched the balconied colonial mansion of pro-Aristide Mayor Wilmar Innocent.

Aristide’s Premier Yvon Neptune said the international community must help save Haiti from “terrorists that are sowing violence and death,” but he did not go so far as to ask for peacekeepers. Neptune appealed to the political opposition coalition to agree to a US-backed international peace plan, saying “We ask the Democratic Platform to follow the example of President Aristide’s self-sacrifice and accept the proposal of the international community. “We are a country under international terrorist threat ... The international community must assume responsibility to help Haiti cope.” Haiti’s political opposition has said it would formally respond by 5 pm (2200 GMT) yesterday to the plan, but leaders indicated earlier in the day that they would not agree to any proposal that does not require Aristide to step down.

Aristide accepted the plan on Saturday, which would allow him to remain president with diminished powers, sharing with political rivals a government that would organise elections. “Jean-Bertrand Aristide is at the centre of the violence. He must not remain in power,” Evans Paul, a leading opposition politician once allied with Aristide, told a news conference. France urged its citizens yesterday to leave Haiti, amid mounting violence from Aristide militants and the rebel insurgency. The United States and Mexico told their citizens to get out last week. There are about 30,000 foreigners in Haiti, including about 20,000 Americans, 2,000 French and 1,000 Canadians. Fifty US Marines headed to Haiti on Monday to protect the US Embassy and its staff, according to Western diplomats and a Defence Department official. Rebel leader Philippe, being feted in Cap-Haitien by thousands who marched Monday in favour of the popular uprising, said Port-au-Prince was his next target. Meantime, the International Red Cross is trying urgently to avert a collapse of medical care in Haiti resulting from the spreading rebellion, a senior official said yesterday.