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## Haiti police flee posts; foreigners leave as riot threats grow
President given U.S. plan to add panel of advisers Mark Stevenson Associated Press Feb. 21, 2004 12:00 AM PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti - Scores of Americans, including missionaries and aid workers, streamed out of Haiti on Friday to escape a two-week rebellion that has overwhelmed the impoverished country's north. Many police deserted their posts, and rebels threatened new attacks this weekend. Later in the day, U.S. and other diplomats handed President Jean-Bertrand Aristide a plan that calls for an interim governing council to advise him and appoint a prime minister agreeable to both sides. But both sides were almost certain to reject it: Aristide because he has said he will not negotiate with the opposition, and opposition leaders because they want Aristide to step down. Pro-government militants torched 15 homes in the western port of St. Marc overnight, and three people died in the fires, independent Radio Galaxie reported. A day after the U.S. government urged Americans to leave Haiti, more than 200 people from the United States, France and Canada stood in lines Friday at Toussaint Louverture International Airport, anxious to get out. "We knew that it was right for us to leave. It's just hard," said Nancy McWilliams, an 18-year-old from Ottawa who abandoned a volunteer job at a children's home in north Cap-Haitien. The U.S. government has been placing air marshals on all American flights in and out of Haiti because of hijacking fears, officials in Washington said. American Airlines said seats were sold out on four of five daily flights to the United States. American missionary Gerald St. Vincent, waiting for a flight to Miami, said Haiti will resolve its problems "only if they have help from outside sources - not less help but more." The uprising began two weeks ago when rebels took the city of Gonaives, and they have since pushed police out of more than a dozen towns in the north. They accuse Aristide of breaking promises to help the poor and of driving the country into chaos while supporting attacks on opponents. Aristide has denied the charges. The proposal presented Friday reflects heightened international pressure to break the stalemate between Aristide and his opponents after more than three weeks of unrest that has included outbreaks of violence. It would also disarm politically allied street gangs Protesters at an anti-government march on Friday denounced any negotiations that could leave Aristide in power.
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