Port-Au-Prince, Haiti — Rebels who have overrun half of Haiti are converging on Haiti's capital Thursday and waiting for the order to attack Port-au-Prince, guerrilla leader Guy Philippe told The Associated Press.
He said their mission was to arrest President Jean-Bertrand Aristide if he did not resign, so Haiti's leader could be tried on charges ranging from corruption to murder.
“We've decided to go toward Port-au-Prince. They're on their way,” Mr. Philippe said in Cap-Haitien, Haiti's second-largest city in the north, which fell on Sunday. “They're taking their places. They know what to do.”
Mr. Philippe said the popular rebel movement already has sleeper cells in the capital but that they would be reinforced by fighters from rebel groups moving in from a variety of locations — Ouanaminthe in the northeast, Saint-Michel de l'Attaye and Saint-Raphael in the north and Gonaives, a rebel base just 100 kilometres northwest of the capital.
Asked if an attack was imminent, he said: “It doesn't mean that we're going to attack today. We're just going to take our positions and wait for the right time.”
Scouts were checking “pockets of resistance,” he said. That might include the government-held town of St. Marc, on the main road from Gonaives to Port-au-Prince.
“It won't take a lot of days. We don't have all our lives to wait for what a dictator is going to do,” Mr. Philippe said in an interview at Cap-Haitien, Haiti's second-largest city which the rebels seized with little resistance on Sunday.
“They're awaiting the order,” he said.
Their mission was to head for the National Palace, the presidential seat, and Mr. Aristide's private residence in Tabarre, on the outskirts of the capital, to “arrest Aristide, just arrest him.”
“I don't want him to die. It would be too easy. He has to pay for what he has done to the Haitian people,” Philippe said.
On Wednesday, Mr. Philippe had said he was going to give Mr. Aristide a chance to step down, as international pressure mounted for politicians to sign on to an internationally backed peace plan. Mr. Aristide agreed, but his political rivals refused, saying Mr. Aristide must step down for any peace to come to Haiti.
“We saw there was no hope for peace,” Mr. Philippe said. “We spent a week waiting for this peace to come. We can't stay waiting for him (Aristide) to decide while his people are killing people.... Every day, innocent people are being killed, houses are being burned.”
Pro-Aristide supporters manned flaming roadblocks throughout Port-au-Prince and braced for a rebel attack while motorists lined up for dwindling supplies of gasoline amid shuttered businesses and otherwise empty streets.
“There is a lot of tension today,” said Jean Pierre Sully, 30, hours before a planned anti-government demonstration by students.
Meanwhile, additional pressure mounted Thursday for Mr. Aristide to resign, with France blaming him for the chaos in Haiti and urging that he be replaced by a transitional government. The UN Security Council scheduled a meeting for Thursday afternoon on the three-week-old uprising.
Foreigners fled the island nation amid isolated looting, and U.S. President George W. Bush said the United States is encouraging the international community to provide a strong “security presence.”
Canadians leaving
Reuters is reporting that 32 Canadians were flown out of the country overnight but a formal departure has not taken place.
Defence Minister David Pratt said Thursday that Canada can't make any commitment beyond helping the 1,025 Canadians in leaving in the country because military resources are stretched thin.
Mr. Pratt, commenting after a speech Thursday to the conference of defence associations in Ottawa, cited Canada's commitment in Afghanistan and lack of available soldiers.
“It's pretty clear that we're in a very tight situation as far as personnel are concerned.
“It's going to be very difficult to go beyond (the Afghanistan commitment) in terms of major commitments in another theatre of operations. We're looking at various options and possibilities.”
In Ottawa, a Defence Department spokesman said a small force of nine Canadian troops, thought to be members of the special operations unit Joint Task Force 2, was sent Wednesday to protect embassy staff. They will join a smaller group of Canadian troops who flew in Tuesday to help plan for a possible evacuation of 1,000 Canadians in the country.
The spokesman, Major Mike Audette, refused to confirm if the soldiers were from JTF-2, but this is the type of rapid-response operation the elite unit is trained for and the force provides some embassy security in other hot spots.
A larger contingent of Canadian soldiers, said to be smaller than a 120-member company, has been put on alert and could depart to further secure the safety of embassy staff and other Canadian citizens in a matter of hours, Major Audette added.
Members of 2nd Battalion, Royal Canadian Regiment, in Gagetown, N.B., along with elements of the Joint Operations Group out of Kingston, Ont., and a Hercules aircraft in Trenton, Ont., have been put on standby, Major Audette said.
Concerned about the increasing chaos in its former colony, France called for Mr. Aristide's resignation, saying “he bears grave responsibility for the current situation.”
“It's up to him to accept the consequences while respecting the rule of law,” Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin said in a statement.
French diplomatic officials confirmed Thursday that the minister was calling for Aristide to resign.
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