Americans urged to leave violence-wracked Haiti

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti -- President Jean-Bertrand Aristide declared Thursday he is ready to die to defend his country against a bloody rebellion, indicating he plans to cling to power. The U.S. government, citing continued violence, urged Americans to leave Haiti. Aristide's defiance and Washington's warning came as the United States and other countries were preparing a political plan to resolve the crisis.

Secretary of State Colin Powell said the plan could be presented to Haitian government and opposition leaders as early as Thursday.

The last major government bastion in northern Haiti was Cap-Haitien, where armed supporters of Aristide patrolled the city Thursday, vowing to fight any rebel attempt to seize control. Frightened police remained barricaded in their station, saying they were too few and poorly armed to repel any attack. Both sides have committed reprisal killings, and dozens of homes have been torched.

"I am ready to give my life if that is what it takes to defend my country," Aristide told stony-faced police officers honoring slain comrades at a ceremony in Port-au-Prince, the capital in the south.

"If wars are expensive, peace can be even more expensive," warned Aristide, who has survived three assassination attempts and a coup.

Amid the chaos, the United States urged Americans to leaves Haiti. More than 20,000 Americans, at least a quarter of them missionaries, are registered with the U.S. Embassy.

Peace Corps personnel were being withdrawn, and other U.S. citizens should leave while commercial transportation is still available, the State Department said.

"American citizens should be aware that the U.S. Embassy has prohibited travel by its staff outside of Port-au-Prince," the warning said.

It added that the embassy's ability to provide emergency services to American citizens outside the capital city was limited and had "drastically decreased in recent days due to numerous random roadblocks set up by armed groups."

The Pentagon said it was sending a small military team to assess the security of the U.S. Embassy and its staff in the Caribbean country.

In Washington, Powell said the emerging political plan does not contemplate Aristide's stepping down before his term ends in February 2006, as Haiti's political opposition and rebels are demanding. But he said the United States would not object if, as part of a negotiation with opposition leaders, Aristide agreed to leave ahead of schedule.

"I think if they will both accept this plan and start executing on it, we might find a way through this crisis politically," Powell told ABC Radio's "Live in America."

But the plan does not address how to end the northern rebellion, which has killed dozens of people. Among the dead are about 40 police officers, according to Jean-Gerard Dubreuil, Haiti's undersecretary for public security.

Powell said the international community must do what it can to help Aristide in his capacity as Haiti's elected leader. But many countries, including the United States, have accused Aristide of using police and militant supporters to stifle opposition.

The uprising, which began Feb. 5, is led by a gang that says it was armed by Aristide to terrorize his opponents in Gonaives, a rebel-held city and the country's fourth-largest, northwest of Port-au-Prince. Its members turned on Haiti's leader after gang leader Amiot Metayer was killed in September, saying he was silenced to stop him spreading damaging information about Aristide. Aristide denies any connection to the gang.

On Thursday, armed men attacked the police station at Ouanaminthe, on Haiti's northeast border with the Dominican Republic, and torched the building, Radio Vision 2000 reported. It did not say if there were casualties.

The rebels were joined this week by a sinister group of former soldiers and a death squad leader from the Haitian army that ousted Aristide in 1991. Aristide disbanded the army after he was restored to power in by a U.S. invasion in 1994.

Aristide got to serve only two years of his first term of office, shortchanged by U.S. insistence that he could not recoup three years lost in exile and had to respect a constitutional term limit.

Instead, he handpicked his successor, and was largely seen as the power behind the scenes until his return in 2000 through presidential elections marred by a low voter turnout and an opposition boycott.

He has lost much support since flawed legislative elections that year led international donors to freeze aid, preventing him from fulfilling an election promise to improve life for Haiti's 8 million people.

Even before the rebellion, half Haiti's people went hungry daily, according to aid organizations that warn of a looming humanitarian crisis.

The United Nations said Thursday it was sending a team by air to northwest Port-de-Paix and Cap-Haitien to assess the situation.

"Mounting insecurity is jeopardizing food security and domestic harvests. ... Some cities are already reportedly confronting food shortages and significant price increases of essential commodities," said a statement from the U.N. Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.