Peace plan deadline extended

2004-02-24 08:43

Port-Au-Prince - Haiti's political opposition insisted on Monday that President Jean Bertrand Aristide step down as part of an international power-sharing plan to end the country's growing crisis, but delayed their final decision for 24 hours following a request by US Secretary of State Colin Powell.

Opposition leaders agreed to a delay just as they were poised to dismiss a last-minute compromise, submitted just hours before a 17:00 deadline for their decision.

The brief respite is unlikely to slow Haiti's descent into anarchy as the opposition made clear it had no intention of dropping demands for Aristide's departure, and a senior Western diplomat said the United States and its partners would not make the president's definite removal part of the power-sharing.

Powell's appeal came amid a deterioration in violence-wracked Haiti's security situation and a surge in attacks in and around the capital.

Armed rebels now holding the country's second largest city of Cap Haitien threaten to storm Port-au-Prince if Aristide does not resign.

The death toll from the nearly three-week-old insurgency climbed to at least 70 on Monday.

Barricades

Police and armed pro-Aristide gangs erected barricades on roads outside of Port-au-Prince to prevent the rebels from advancing from the north of country, much of which is now in their control.

In Cap Haitien, rebel leader Guy Philippe, who claims to have more than 700 men under arms, said unless Aristide steps down, his forces would attack Port-au-Prince "in two or three days" and would control the entire country in two weeks.

Diplomatic sources said the United Nations would send at least some of its 100 staff in Haiti away for a month and the United States dispatched some 50 Marines to Port-au-Prince to protect its embassy after ordering most of its remaining diplomats out of the country at the weekend.

France, which warned that Haiti is heading toward a "massacre," joined a growing number of countries in advising their citizens to leave at once. Long lines of foreigners crowded the airport to catch flights out.

Powell's conference call with the Aristide's political foes was the latest in a series of increasingly intense international efforts to convince the opposition to accept the power-sharing plan.

Powell "asked us to consider waiting another 24 hours before we let them know if we can change our position with regard to Aristide's departure", opposition leader Evans Paul said.

But, he stressed: "Our position is very clear, we need Aristide's departure as the first element in resolving this crisis."

- AFP