EvanL
02-13-2004, 03:32 PM
By PAUL KNOX
UPDATED AT 3:29 PM EST Friday, Feb. 13, 2004
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PORT-AU-PRINCE -- The United States stepped up efforts to defuse Haiti's political crisis yesterday, asking Canada and Caribbean countries to consider sending a police mission to help the government seize control of rebel-held towns.
But Foreign Affairs Minister Bill Graham ruled out Canadian participation unless President Jean-Bertrand Aristide and his foes reach a deal to end months of political unrest -- a course that opposition leaders have rejected.
After a fresh clash between protesters and pro-government crowds shook Port-au-Prince yesterday, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell said he intended to sound out Mr. Graham and envoys from Haiti's Caribbean neighbours about a possible police mission at a meeting in Washington today.
"We will be discussing with the Canadians and with Caricom nations whether or not they are in a position to provide police support to the government in order to bring these disturbing situations under control," Mr. Powell told the Senate foreign-relations committee in Washington.
Canada helped a U.S.-led force restore Mr. Aristide to power in 1994 after three years of military rule, and sent more than 100 police officers to train Haiti's national force. But in a telephone interview from Toronto last night, Mr. Graham said the time isn't right for foreign intervention because Mr. Aristide's political opponents have not moved from their demand that the elected President resign.
"I don't think we can ask Canadian police to risk their lives in that enterprise," Mr. Graham said.
As the diplomatic activity intensified, several towns in north-central Haiti remained in control of rebel gangs, some of them formerly loyal to Mr. Aristide.
The rebel takeovers have escalated political unrest that until recently consisted mainly of protest marches in Port-au-Prince, organized by students, professors, business people and professionals.
Opposition leaders are demanding Mr. Aristide resign, accusing him of rampant corruption and instigating political violence since his latest election in a 2000 vote that was widely denounced as flawed.
They scheduled another march yesterday, but called it off after angry supporters of Mr. Aristide blocked it with gunfire, rock-throwing and burning barricades. Later, key opposition figures told reporters that the incident shows Mr. Aristide is determined to suppress criticism and political opposition.
They called for foreign governments to step up criticism of Mr. Aristide and rejected calls for negotiations.
"If they send a clear message to Aristide that he must go, he'll go," said Charles Baker, a leader of the anti-Aristide Group of 184. "You're dealing with someone who never keeps his word. Why ask us to negotiate with him?"
But foreign governments have been reluctant to challenge Mr. Aristide's legitimacy, and Mr. Graham echoed that position yesterday. "I don't think he should be forced to step down by outside parties . . . or by the opposition," he said.
Mr. Powell sounded a similar note, saying Washington is not seeking "regime change" in Haiti even though he has been "disappointed" by Mr. Aristide's attempts at building democracy in the country.
Witnesses said the first protesters who arrived yesterday at a rendezvous point in the Canape Vert district were stoned and beaten. Gunshots were heard before dawn in the nearby suburb of Pétionville.
Later, about 500 government supporters chanted "down with terrorists" and called for Mr. Aristide to stay until the end of his presidential term in 2006. Several carried baseball bats. At one point, a gun was fired and youths threw rocks and a pop bottle at a house on the square, apparently angered because its occupants appeared at the windows.
At a barricade of wrecked cars and smouldering tires, a youth wearing a black stocking mask ordered the occupants of a sport-utility vehicle to turn around.
A smartly dressed woman wearing sunglasses emerged from the vehicle and screamed insults at the youths. Turning to foreign reporters, she shouted: "We want to go to a march, but we can't go because these thugs of Aristide's won't let us pass."
A 25-year-old businessman who said he was opposed to Mr. Aristide demanded that the United States come to the aid of Haitians as he said it did for Iraq. "They go to all these countries like Baghdad to free all those people," he said. "We need to be free too."
The Port-au-Prince protesters say they have no links to the rebels in the north, but Mr. Aristide's supporters make no distinction.
"If those guys get power can you imagine what would happen?" asked dollar-store owner Harold Geffrard, 37. "They would destroy and destroy and destroy."
Mr. Geffrard said he and several friends showed up in Canape Vert after being told the demonstrators planned to seize control of the local police station. "We wanted to give the police backup," he said.
Asked why the police would need security instead of providing it to citizens, he replied: "The police are in the minority, and they're not well armed."
UPDATED AT 3:29 PM EST Friday, Feb. 13, 2004
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PORT-AU-PRINCE -- The United States stepped up efforts to defuse Haiti's political crisis yesterday, asking Canada and Caribbean countries to consider sending a police mission to help the government seize control of rebel-held towns.
But Foreign Affairs Minister Bill Graham ruled out Canadian participation unless President Jean-Bertrand Aristide and his foes reach a deal to end months of political unrest -- a course that opposition leaders have rejected.
After a fresh clash between protesters and pro-government crowds shook Port-au-Prince yesterday, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell said he intended to sound out Mr. Graham and envoys from Haiti's Caribbean neighbours about a possible police mission at a meeting in Washington today.
"We will be discussing with the Canadians and with Caricom nations whether or not they are in a position to provide police support to the government in order to bring these disturbing situations under control," Mr. Powell told the Senate foreign-relations committee in Washington.
Canada helped a U.S.-led force restore Mr. Aristide to power in 1994 after three years of military rule, and sent more than 100 police officers to train Haiti's national force. But in a telephone interview from Toronto last night, Mr. Graham said the time isn't right for foreign intervention because Mr. Aristide's political opponents have not moved from their demand that the elected President resign.
"I don't think we can ask Canadian police to risk their lives in that enterprise," Mr. Graham said.
As the diplomatic activity intensified, several towns in north-central Haiti remained in control of rebel gangs, some of them formerly loyal to Mr. Aristide.
The rebel takeovers have escalated political unrest that until recently consisted mainly of protest marches in Port-au-Prince, organized by students, professors, business people and professionals.
Opposition leaders are demanding Mr. Aristide resign, accusing him of rampant corruption and instigating political violence since his latest election in a 2000 vote that was widely denounced as flawed.
They scheduled another march yesterday, but called it off after angry supporters of Mr. Aristide blocked it with gunfire, rock-throwing and burning barricades. Later, key opposition figures told reporters that the incident shows Mr. Aristide is determined to suppress criticism and political opposition.
They called for foreign governments to step up criticism of Mr. Aristide and rejected calls for negotiations.
"If they send a clear message to Aristide that he must go, he'll go," said Charles Baker, a leader of the anti-Aristide Group of 184. "You're dealing with someone who never keeps his word. Why ask us to negotiate with him?"
But foreign governments have been reluctant to challenge Mr. Aristide's legitimacy, and Mr. Graham echoed that position yesterday. "I don't think he should be forced to step down by outside parties . . . or by the opposition," he said.
Mr. Powell sounded a similar note, saying Washington is not seeking "regime change" in Haiti even though he has been "disappointed" by Mr. Aristide's attempts at building democracy in the country.
Witnesses said the first protesters who arrived yesterday at a rendezvous point in the Canape Vert district were stoned and beaten. Gunshots were heard before dawn in the nearby suburb of Pétionville.
Later, about 500 government supporters chanted "down with terrorists" and called for Mr. Aristide to stay until the end of his presidential term in 2006. Several carried baseball bats. At one point, a gun was fired and youths threw rocks and a pop bottle at a house on the square, apparently angered because its occupants appeared at the windows.
At a barricade of wrecked cars and smouldering tires, a youth wearing a black stocking mask ordered the occupants of a sport-utility vehicle to turn around.
A smartly dressed woman wearing sunglasses emerged from the vehicle and screamed insults at the youths. Turning to foreign reporters, she shouted: "We want to go to a march, but we can't go because these thugs of Aristide's won't let us pass."
A 25-year-old businessman who said he was opposed to Mr. Aristide demanded that the United States come to the aid of Haitians as he said it did for Iraq. "They go to all these countries like Baghdad to free all those people," he said. "We need to be free too."
The Port-au-Prince protesters say they have no links to the rebels in the north, but Mr. Aristide's supporters make no distinction.
"If those guys get power can you imagine what would happen?" asked dollar-store owner Harold Geffrard, 37. "They would destroy and destroy and destroy."
Mr. Geffrard said he and several friends showed up in Canape Vert after being told the demonstrators planned to seize control of the local police station. "We wanted to give the police backup," he said.
Asked why the police would need security instead of providing it to citizens, he replied: "The police are in the minority, and they're not well armed."