Armed Haitian rebels seized a central town and killed the district police chief as embattled President Jean Bertrand Aristide asked for international help in putting down a spreading uprising.
The latest killings pushed the death toll since Feb. 5, when rebels seized the northern city of Gonaives, to more than 55. The town of some 200,000 remains in rebel hands.
"I have already asked and I will continue to ask the international community and prime ministers of the region to move faster on this issue," Aristide told reporters late Monday at the presidential palace.
PHOTO: REUTERS
He said he was rallying support for an international police force to deploy under the banner of the Organization of American States, in what he called "a fight against terrorism."
In his discussions with regional leaders, Aristide said he had received assurances of unspecified support.
Haiti's neighbor, Dominican Republic, also called on the international community to take action, after it closed its border with Haiti in response to the killing of two Dominican soldiers over the weekend.
The border closing on Monday came as the central Haiti town of Hinche, not far from the border, fell to rebels demanding the ouster of Aristide, a former Roman Catholic priest who was first elected president in 1991.
Three people, including police chief Jonas Maxime and his bodyguard, were slain by armed rebels in an attack on a police station in Hinche, 130km northeast of the capital, Port-au-Prince, local radio reports and residents said.
By nightfall, Hinche, population 87,000, was in rebel hands, local radio said. Local police retreated to the town of Mirebalais, 55km south of Hinche.
Louis Jodel Chamblain led the attack on Hinche's police station, according to local radio. He was a feared paramilitary leader under former Haitian military dictator Raoul Cedras, who ruled from 1991 to 1994.
State secretary for communications Mario Dupuy said the offensive was conducted by about 40 former members of the military.
Two rebels died early Monday in the northern city of Saint-Marc, 95km north of the capital.
An associate of the dead men, Jodesty Auguste, said the two had been members of an armed group opposed to Aristide's rule. He claimed they were slain by a pro-government group.
Meanwhile, a rebel leader reiterated his opposition to violence, saying his group would resort only to "legal, peaceful" means in its bid to sweep Aristide from power.
"We affirm our commitment to a peaceful struggle and we will use every peaceful means available to us under the constitution" Serge Gilles said.
However, Gilles said other opposition factions have not renounced violence in their bid to topple Aristide, whose popularity has plummeted following elections in 2000 tainted by fraud charges.
"There are two opposition factions -- one committed to the rule of law, which we belong to, and the other violent, which we don't approve of," Gilles said.
Aristide late Monday insisted the current crisis could not be resolved in the streets but at a negotiating table.
"It will be resolved through a new division of responsibilities within the government and then through elections," he said.
France is exploring the idea of sending an international peacekeeping force to Haiti, French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin said yesterday.
"We want to think about what could be done in this emergency situation," de Villepin told the state-owned France Inter radio station.
"Could a peace force be deployed?" de Villepin said.
"We are in touch with all our partners within the framework of the United Nations, who have sent a humanitarian mission to see what can be done," he added.
The minister, whose country ruled what is now Haiti in the 18th century, also said the French government was setting up a crisis unit on the situation.
He said the unit was due to hold an initial meeting yesterday.
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