Violence-wracked Haiti faced a new crisis yesterday after political opponents formally rejected an international peace plan and armed rebels seized another city amid warnings of a bloodbath.
The opposition on Tuesday bucked intense pressure to accept the power-sharing proposal because the plan does not include the automatic removal of embattled President Jean Bertrand Aristide.
Aristide had earlier refused to step down and predicted brutal killing sprees if his political foes did not relent.
The rejection, in a letter delivered to the plan's sponsors, was to be announced yesterday and is expected to be roundly condemned, particularly by the US, which had leaned heavily on the opposition to accept the proposal.
Evans Paul, a senior member of the Democratic Platform coalition, said the rejection letter had been handed to David Lee, the head of a special Organization of American States (OAS) mission in Haiti.
Under the plan, Aristide would have ceded significant powers to a new prime minister and Cabinet but would serve out his term. Foreign governments would have helped face down the spreading insurgency with the dispatch of an "international security presence."
US Secretary of State Colin Powell had given Haiti's political opposition until 5pm Tuesday to accept the power-sharing plan, and spoke with 20 opposition leaders by telephone before the deadline passed.
Despite the rejection, Powell has not given up on the plan.
"We are still talking and working with the parties in Haiti to gain acceptance of the plan," a State Department official said on condition of anonymity.
Powell, who spoke with French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin late Tuesday, "supported the French offer to organize a meeting in Paris and hopes the parties will take advantage of the opportunity," the official said.
With their seizure of Port-de-Paix overnight, the rebels now control at least half the country. They hold nearly all of northern Haiti, including the second-largest city of Cap Haitien, which they took on Sunday, sparking chaos and widespread looting.
Also see story:
Haiti has been throttled by history and let down by the West
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
China's military today said it began joint army, navy and rocket force exercises around Taiwan to "serve as a stern warning and powerful deterrent against Taiwanese independence," calling President William Lai (賴清德) a "parasite." The exercises come after Lai called Beijing a "foreign hostile force" last month. More than 10 Chinese military ships approached close to Taiwan's 24 nautical mile (44.4km) contiguous zone this morning and Taiwan sent its own warships to respond, two senior Taiwanese officials said. Taiwan has not yet detected any live fire by the Chinese military so far, one of the officials said. The drills took place after US Secretary
THUGGISH BEHAVIOR: Encouraging people to report independence supporters is another intimidation tactic that threatens cross-strait peace, the state department said China setting up an online system for reporting “Taiwanese independence” advocates is an “irresponsible and reprehensible” act, a US government spokesperson said on Friday. “China’s call for private individuals to report on alleged ‘persecution or suppression’ by supposed ‘Taiwan independence henchmen and accomplices’ is irresponsible and reprehensible,” an unnamed US Department of State spokesperson told the Central News Agency in an e-mail. The move is part of Beijing’s “intimidation campaign” against Taiwan and its supporters, and is “threatening free speech around the world, destabilizing the Indo-Pacific region, and deliberately eroding the cross-strait status quo,” the spokesperson said. The Chinese Communist Party’s “threats
RSS