Militants loyal to President Jean-Bertrand Aristide attacked protesters demanding he resign with barrages of shotgun fire, rocks and bottles as diplomats presented a peace plan for which government and opposition leaders show little enthusiasm.
Scores of foreigners are streaming out of Haiti, acting on a warning from the US to flee mounting violence in government-held areas and threats of new rebel attacks in the north over Carnival weekend.
On Friday, anti-government protesters marched down the main road leading to Port-au-Prince international airport denouncing any plan that does not demand Aristide step down.
"Aristide's a scorpion," they chanted.
They were confronted by Aristide supporters who lobbed rocks and bottles and then opened fire.
About 14 people were injured and wounded, including a Haitian journalist shot twice in the back. Four foreign reporters were beaten up. One was slashed by a machete and only saved by his helmet.
Two of the key points of the international plan are disarming politically motivated street gangs and setting rules for political demonstrations.
Diplomats from a host of nations were to arrive Saturday to persuade Haiti's politicians to agree, apparently hoping that pressure from the two-week old popular uprising that has killed more than 60 people will impel them to a compromise they have resisted for years.
The plan was presented Friday, but even before it arrived both sides indicated reluctance.
"We don't expect much from the delegation," said opposition spokesman Paul Denis of the team to be led by Roger Noriega, the top US diplomat for the Western Hemisphere.
"If it wants to resolve the crisis the question of Aristide's resignation must be on the table," Denis said.
Aristide has shown determination to serve out his term that ends February 2006, and said he could not negotiate with "terrorists," repeating charges that the opposition supports the bloody rebellion.
On Friday, his government spokesman, Mario Dupuy, said "The government hopes the mission will be able to detach the opposition from acts and actors of violence ... the opposition has a chance to prove it is not in favor of violence and terrorism."
Aristide agreed months ago to the main tenets of the plan, then presented by the 15-nation Caribbean Community, but he has done nothing to act on it.
A key requirement is the appointment of a prime minister acceptable to both sides -- something they have not been able to agree on since flawed legislative elections in 2000 were swept by Aristide's Lavalas Party.
Aristide, who won Haiti's first free elections in a landslide in 1990, has lost support since his reelection. Haiti's chronic misery has deepened since international donors froze aid while Aristide is seen as condoning corruption that provides lavish lifestyles for government officials.
The former slum priest has responded to growing opposition by using police and armed gangs to stifle dissent and create a climate of fear.
In Haiti today, life appears more dangerous in places like the western port of St. Marc, where radio stations reported Aristide thugs torched 15 houses Thursday night, setting blazes that killed three people.
"Innocent people are being killed and houses are burned down every day and night in St. Marc and the police are doing nothing," said American missionary Terry Snow of Granbury, Texas.
In Cap-Haitien, the last major government bastion in the north, frightened police officers have barricaded themselves in their station and left the streets to armed government supporters terrorizing the population.
Also see story:
NO-LIMITS PARTNERSHIP: ‘The bottom line’ is that if the US were to have a conflict with China or Russia it would likely open up a second front with the other, a US senator said Beijing and Moscow could cooperate in a conflict over Taiwan, the top US intelligence chief told the US Senate this week. “We see China and Russia, for the first time, exercising together in relation to Taiwan and recognizing that this is a place where China definitely wants Russia to be working with them, and we see no reason why they wouldn’t,” US Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines told a US Senate Committee on Armed Services hearing on Thursday. US Senator Mike Rounds asked Haines about such a potential scenario. He also asked US Defense Intelligence Agency Director Lieutenant General Jeffrey Kruse
INSPIRING: Taiwan has been a model in the Asia-Pacific region with its democratic transition, free and fair elections and open society, the vice president-elect said Taiwan can play a leadership role in the Asia-Pacific region, vice president-elect Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) told a forum in Taipei yesterday, highlighting the nation’s resilience in the face of geopolitical challenges. “Not only can Taiwan help, but Taiwan can lead ... not only can Taiwan play a leadership role, but Taiwan’s leadership is important to the world,” Hsiao told the annual forum hosted by the Center for Asia-Pacific Resilience and Innovation think tank. Hsiao thanked Taiwan’s international friends for their long-term support, citing the example of US President Joe Biden last month signing into law a bill to provide aid to Taiwan,
China’s intrusive and territorial claims in the Indo-Pacific region are “illegal, coercive, aggressive and deceptive,” new US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo said on Friday, adding that he would continue working with allies and partners to keep the area free and open. Paparo made the remarks at a change-of-command ceremony at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in Hawaii, where he took over the command from Admiral John Aquilino. “Our world faces a complex problem set in the troubling actions of the People’s Republic of China [PRC] and its rapid buildup of forces. We must be ready to answer the PRC’s increasingly intrusive and
STATE OF THE NATION: The legislature should invite the president to deliver an address every year, the TPP said, adding that Lai should also have to answer legislators’ questions The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) yesterday proposed inviting president-elect William Lai (賴清德) to make a historic first state of the nation address at the legislature following his inauguration on May 20. Lai is expected to face many domestic and international challenges, and should clarify his intended policies with the public’s representatives, KMT caucus secretary-general Hung Meng-kai (洪孟楷) said when making the proposal at a meeting of the legislature’s Procedure Committee. The committee voted to add the item to the agenda for Friday, along with another similar proposal put forward by the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP). The invitation is in line with Article 15-2