Mar 1, 2004
By Jim Loney and Alistair Scrutton
Photo: US Marines line up on the tarmac of the International Airport in Port-Au-Prince. US Marines landed in Haiti late 29 February as a vanguard of an international security force following the departure of president Jean Bertrand Aristide(AFP/Yuri Cortez)
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (Reuters) - U.S. Marines hit the streets of the chaotic Haitian capital on Monday after President Jean-Bertrand Aristide fled into exile in Africa, driven out by a bloody rebellion and foreign pressure.
The first contingent of Marines arrived late on Sunday to help quell the looting and gun battles that erupted when Aristide fled his impoverished Caribbean nation, his presidency cut short violently for the second time. He was exiled by a military coup in 1991 during his first term.
"We are here to protect U.S. interests and to help with the security of the Haitian people," a Marine captain told Reuters at the airport in Port-au-Prince where U.S. troops arrived and unloaded Humvees and other military gear.
Aristide early on Monday reached Bangui, the capital of the Central African Republic, witnesses said. South Africa said it would consider a request for political asylum but had not received one.
A former Roman Catholic priest whose fiery oratory from the pulpit made him a hero to Haiti's poor masses and helped end the Duvalier family dictatorship in the 1980s, Aristide said he resigned to avert "a blood bath."
His second presidency unraveled under months of often violent protests by political foes who accused him of becoming the kind of corrupt dictator he once railed against, capped by an armed rebellion in which former soldiers and gang members overran towns and cities to the north of Port-au-Prince.
The first of the ragtag band of rebels who helped oust Aristide arrived in the capital on Sunday after mayhem erupted in the wake of the president's departure. Looters struck shops, police stations and the homes of Aristide supporters, carting off refrigerators, doors, televisions and clothing.
Within hours, Haitian Chief Justice Boniface Alexandre was named to replace him as laid out in the constitution.
President Bush ordered the deployment of U.S. Marines to serve as the vanguard of a multinational security force. It was the third major deployment of U.S. troops to Haiti in the past century. Ten years ago President Bill Clinton sent 20,000 Marines to restore Aristide to power after he had been ousted in a coup.
A Haitian police officer said four military transport planes arrived late on Sunday at Toussaint L'Ouverture International Airport, named for the leader of the slave revolt that led to Haiti's birth as the world's first independent black republic in 1804.
Secretary of State Colin Powell, appearing on CBS' "The Early Show," said he expected troops from Latin American countries to join U.S. and French forces in Haiti.
"I expect that our troops and other international troops coming in will help to stabilize things," he said. "I don't think there will be a great deal of fighting but they have to be prepared for that."
On NBC's "Today" show, Powell said the U.S. presence, part of a multinational force approved Sunday night by the United Nations, would be "in the hundreds, a little more than a thousand or so, but it is not a large force."
More than 120 French troops were due to arrive on Monday, and Canada, which has about 50 troops in Haiti, said it could send another 100 at short notice. Brazil is expected to contribute to the force, given an initial three-month mandate.
Photo: Armed Haitian rebels stand at the ready after arriving in Port-au-Prince on February 29, 2004. Faced with an armed rebellion and mounting international pressure, Jean-Bertrand Aristide left his troubled Caribbean nation, Haitian and foreign officials said. Aristide, whose role in a popular uprising that ended decades of dictatorship in the 1980s made him a hero of Haitian democracy, left the nation of 8 million people 24 days after the start of a bloody uprising by armed rebels determined to unseat him. Photo by Andrew Winning/Reuters
The rebels, led by the leader of a death squad that terrorized Haiti during Aristide's first exile in the early 1990s and a former police chief, said they would lay down their arms and end their 24-day uprising in the poorest country in the Americas.
The rebellion, which capped months of simmering political tension, began in the western city of Gonaives, led by a street gang that once supported Aristide. It spread over the north of the country, with rebels taking Cap Haitien, Haiti's second largest city, a week ago.
The death toll rose to nearly 80 as opponents of the president hunted down his dreaded "chimeres" -- street toughs armed by Aristide to enforce his will in the country's sprawling slums.
An official at the Port-au-Prince morgue said early on Monday the bodies of 10 people, all shot, had arrived in the last day.
The departure of Aristide, who had insisted he would serve out his second term to 2006, was arranged by U.S. officials.
He initially traveled to the Dominican Republic, which shares the island of Hispaniola with Haiti, and then to the eastern Caribbean nation of Antigua and Barbuda.
Witnesses in the Central African Republic said they saw Aristide arrive at Mpoko airport on Monday. It was not clear if he planned to seek refuge in the impoverished nation.
South African Deputy Foreign Minister Aziz Pahad told reporters his country would consider any request for political asylum from Aristide.
"If and when this happens, the cabinet will have to take a decision," Pahad said.
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=4468261§ion=news