18942: (Hermantin) Miami-Herald-Exit begins amid Haiti peace talks (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: leonie hermantin <lhermantin@hotmail.com>

Posted on Sat, Feb. 21, 2004

CRISIS IN HAITI


Exit begins amid Haiti peace talks

Americans -- and some Haitians -- begin leaving Haiti, and foreign
emissaries press the president to accept a plan that would keep him in
office but trim his powers.

BY MARIKA LYNCH

mlynch@herald.com


PORT-AU-PRINCE -- Scores of fearful Americans and Haitians stood in long
lines at the Port-au-Prince airport to escape a bloody revolt that left
another 11 wounded Friday when government supporters and foes clashed in the
capital.

U.S., French and Caribbean ambassadors meanwhile met separately with
President Jean-Bertrand Aristide and the political opposition to push them
to accept a settlement that would leave the president in office but slash
his powers.

''I didn't want to go,'' said Maria Tena, a 25-year-old from Spokane, Wash.,
as she prepared to board a flight out with a group of Spanish nuns in
northwest Haiti one day after a U.S. Embassy warning that it was not safe to
stay. ``But we called [the Spanish] ambassador and he told us to get out as
soon as we could.''

Arriving at Miami International Airport, Gerome Berteau said he fled Haiti,
leaving behind his wife and five children and the rice farm he runs near the
port of St. Marc, after ''the Artistide people'' burned down his house
Wednesday.

''I lost everything,'' said Berteau, still visibly shaken by the ordeal
although no one was injured. ``All my important papers. All my children's
clothes. I don't have anything left.''

Berteau insisted he does not belong to any political party but said he is
convinced he cannot return to his homeland. ''Next time, they'll probably
come back and kill me,'' he said.

It's that kind of violence that the foreign ambassadors were trying to stop
with their talks Friday. Today, more senior-ranking envoys including
Washington's top diplomat on Latin America, Deputy Secretary of State Roger
Noriega, are expected to add to the pressure.

CEDING POWERS

A The diplomats are pushing a settlement under which Aristide would
surrender much of his powers to a new prime minister who would have direct
control of an internationally supervised police force, two diplomatic
sources close to the negotiations said.

The prime minister would be selected by a new panel made up of one
representative each from Aristide's government, the opposition and the
international community. Aristide would remain in power until his term
expires in 2006, but the new government would be committed to disarming both
the pro- and antigovernment gangs behind much of the violence.

Government spokesman Mario Dupuy said Aristide is open to negotiations and
has long been willing to accept an opposition member in his government.

But the opposition stood by its demand for Aristide's resignation.

TOO MUCH TO ASK

''How can they ask us to negotiate with a man who has sent people to attack
student and the opposition's peaceful marches?'' said opposition spokesman
Charles Baker.

Haiti's political crisis, which began over the country's flawed legislative
vote in May 2000, erupted into an armed revolt two weeks ago when an
anti-Aristide gang began to take over towns in central and northern Haiti in
an effort to oust Aristide.

The violence hit Port-au-Prince Friday when pro-Aristide militants attacked
a student protest and wounded 11 people, including a Haitian journalist who
was shot.

Dupuy condemned the violence but said the students did not have a police
permit and were marching illegally. He added that police didn't try to stop
the attacks because officers have been under their own threats recently.

One of those making threats was Guy Philippe, leader of one of the armed
factions in the anti-Aristide revolt, who told radio interviewers Friday
that his forces would soon attack Cap Haitien in the north, Haiti's second
largest city.

The former Cap Haitien police chief also said he was glad to hear Aristide
say this week that he was willing to die to defend his country.

''We would like to grant his wish,'' Philippe said.

Herald staff writers Jacqueline Charles and Gail Epstein Nieves and
correspondent Amy Bracken contributed to this report.

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