Haiti waits for peacekeepers as Aristide flees into exile

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti -- President Jean-Bertrand Aristide resigned and flew into exile Sunday, pressured by a bloody rebellion and the United States. Gunfire crackled as the capital fell into chaos, and U.S. Marines were sent to the country.

The contingent totaled fewer than 100 Marines and more were to arrive Monday, the vanguard of a multinational force that the U.N. Security Council approved late Sunday night. France said it would send troops today.

"The government believes it is essential that Haiti have a hopeful future. This is the beginning of a new chapter," President Bush said at the White House. "I would urge the people of Haiti to reject violence, to give this break from the past a chance to work. And the United States is prepared to help."

After word spread of the president's departure, angry Aristide supporters roamed the streets armed with old rifles, pistols, machetes and sticks. Some fired wildly into crowds on the Champs de Mars, the main square in front of the National Palace.

On the main John Brown Boulevard, Aristide followers armed with shotguns set up a roadblock; at the same spot, hours later, they had disappeared -- leaving behind the bullet-riddled bodies of three men sprawled inside an all-terrain vehicle.

"I think the worst is over, and we're waiting for the international forces. They will have our full cooperation," rebel leader Guy Philippe told CNN.

Anarchy reigned in Port-au-Prince. Inmates were freed from the National Penitentiary and several other jails around the country. The casualty toll was unknown.

Looters emptied a police station and hit pharmacies, supermarkets and other businesses, mostly on the capital's outskirts.

"Chop off their heads and burn their homes," rioters screamed, echoing the war cry of Jean-Jacques Dessalines, the general who ousted French troops and torched plantations to end slavery in Haiti.

Some anti-Aristide militants organized armed posses that prowled the streets in pickup trucks, searching for Aristide supporters. In the back of one a man lay unconscious -- or dead -- with a head wound.

But police moved in during the afternoon, scared away the crowd in the front of the palace, and the violence ebbed.

Residents sat outside their homes in the tropical heat, some listening intently to radios pressed against their ears. Police patrolled several neighborhoods.

James Voltaire, 28, said Haiti's constitution had been violated. "Whoever the president is, it's going to be a losing situation. As long as we don't see our real president we will stay mobilized," he warned.

Prime Minister Yvon Neptune told a press conference that Aristide resigned to "prevent bloodshed," but there were conflicting reports on where the ex-leader would go.

Aristide's jet refueled on the island of Antigua and was en route to South Africa, government and airport officials in that Caribbean country said. But officials in Johannesburg said there had been no recent contact with Aristide nor an offer of asylum.

Another U.S. official, also speaking on condition of anonymity, said South Africa was the country most often mentioned. Secretary of State Colin Powell conferred on Saturday with South African President Thabo Mbeki.

National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice said Aristide was going to a "third" country, meaning he would not take refuge in the United States as he did the last time he was ousted, in 1991.

Powell also spoke by telephone with the foreign ministers of Argentina, France, Jamaica and Panama. Other reports said Aristide would go to Morocco, Taiwan or Panama.

Panama's president said she would consider granting the former Catholic priest asylum but had not been asked. But officials in Taiwan said there were no plans to shelter Aristide, and Morocco said he was not welcome. Costa Rica offered to provide temporary political asylum to Aristide but he decided to go somewhere in Africa instead, Security Secretary Rogelio Ramos said Sunday.

Three hours after Aristide's departure, Supreme Court Justice Boniface Alexandre declared at a news conference that he was taking over as called for by the constitution. He urged calm.

"The task will not be an easy one," said Alexandre. "Haiti is in crisis. ... It needs all its sons and daughters. No one should take justice into their own hands."

Alexandre, in his 60s, has a reputation for honesty. Despite his declaration that he was in charge, the Haitian constitution calls for parliament to approve him as leader, and the legislature has not met since early this year when lawmakers' terms expired.

Half the country is in the hands of the rebels, including former soldiers of the army that Aristide disbanded during a political career tainted by alleged fraud.

Philippe, the rebel leader, told The Associated Press his forces would head for the capital but would not engage in any further fighting.

"The time is not for fighting anymore," Philippe said in an interview with CNN.

He also said rebels wanted to take part in any negotiations about Haiti's future, but had already accepted Alexandre as president.

"We just hope no country will accept Aristide, so they will send him back to be judged. He did bad things," Philippe, a former police chief, said at a rebel headquarters in the key northern port town of Cap-Haitien. He told CNN his men would be in the capital by Sunday night or this morning.