Rebels take third Haitian city

2004-02-27 11:07

Port-au-Prince - Haitian rebels seized the country's third largest city as President Jean Bertrand Aristide insisted he still would not stand down.

Black smoke billowed over Port-au-Prince as dusk fell on Thursday and pro-Aristide gangs returned to street barricades thrown up a day earlier to thwart any rebel advance, but nervous residents warily awaited an assault.

Rebels already control the northern half of the country after a three week insurrection that has left more than 70 dead.

Police said a new band of anti-Aristide rebels made a breakthrough in the south by taking Cayes and two smaller towns.

Police station abandoned

The main police station in Cayes, which has a population of about 125 000, was abandoned after an attack by a group calling themselves Base Resistance, police said.

Police stations in nearby Cotes de Fer and Cavaillon were also attacked by the same group and had been abandoned, police said.

Aristide renewed calls for international support, and warned there could be thousands of dead and a mass exodus.

US authorities said they had already intercepted 500 Haitians in the past two days offshore.

President George W Bush has said any intercepted refugees would be returned by the United States to Haitian soil, but Human Rights Watch urged the administration not to turn back refugees.

"The United States is obligated by the 1951 Refugee Convention and related international laws not to return refugees to a place where their lives or freedom are threatened," the rights group said in a statement.

Separately, three Florida-based Republican lawmakers wrote to US Secretary of Homeland Security, Tom Ridge, urging him to grant a temporary amnesty for any Haitian nationals caught in the United States.

Aristide admitted that residents of the capital were "anxious" about threats by the main rebel leader, Guy Philippe, to seize the city. The rebels already control the northern half of Haiti.

Rumours of Aristide's departure swirled through the capital. One Haitian opposition leader, Evans Paul, said Aristide would leave the country in the "next few hours or days".

'Psychological warfare'

But government spokesperson Mario Dupuy said Paul's remarks and threats by rebels to move on Port-au-Prince were "psychological warfare".

Rebel leader Phillipe said the capital was almost entirely surrounded and that his fighters would take it within days.

Phillipe's success in taking the country's second-largest city, Cap-Haitien, and other territory has left residents of the capital and diplomats on edge.

Diplomats in Port-au-Prince had demanded that Aristide crack down on the gangs.

And in a brief lull on Thursday, 92 United Nations and European Union officials and their families left the capital.

Some foreign officials remaining said they feared a countrywide killing spree if rebels and pro-Aristide gangs fight in the capital.

"Things could get very bad, very soon," one official said.

- AFP