Haiti's premier warned of an impending coup amid fears that an uprising may have reached Haiti's second city, Cap-Haitien.
Prime Minister Yvon Neptune appealed for international aid, but the US and France express reluctance to send troops to put down the rebellion that has killed at least 57 people.
Police and armed supporters of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide mounted barricades and patrolled the streets of Cap-Haitien on Haiti's north coast on Tuesday. Flights to that city -- already cut off by land -- were canceled.
PHOTO: AFP
"We are witnessing the coup d'etat machine in motion," Neptune said, urging the international community "to show it really wants peace and stability."
Aid agencies called for urgent international action, saying Haiti is on "the verge of a generalized civil war." The UN refugee agency met with officials in Washington to discuss how to confront a feared exodus of Haitians, though there are no immediate signs of people fleeing.
In Gonaives, rebels fired shots into the air to prevent crowds of hungry residents from stampeding several trucks loaded with food -- lentils and millet -- brought by the aid agency CARE. Film from Associated Television news showed one woman trampled in the melee. She was taken to a hospital for treatment.
The food was the first shipment to reach Gonaives, Haiti's fourth largest city, since it was taken by rebels who began the revolt Feb. 5.
The brutality of the insurrection was on display in the central city of Hinche, where the bullet-riddled body of a policeman lay, unburied and rotting, outside the local police station.
Hinche, at a strategic crossroads in Haiti's agriculture-rich Artibonite district, was seized Monday by some 50 rebels reportedly led by former death squad leader Louis-Jodel Chamblain. It is only 115km northeast of Port-au-Prince but can take more than three hours to reach on potholed roads depreciated to bedrock.
"If the bodyguards of the police chief hadn't fought back he wouldn't have been killed," resident Francoise Joseph told APTN, saying other police were allowed to leave.
Meanwhile, the EU appealed yesterday for government and opposition forces in Haiti to stop violence and seek a political solution to the crisis.
"The European Union strongly believes that the present crisis in Haiti must be resolved peacefully, by seeking dialogue and compromise," the bloc said in a statement. "All constitutional solutions should be considered."
It called on "all political forces, without exception, to refrain from any kind of violent behavior."
The EU singled out supporters of Aristide for breaking up opposition demonstrations.
"The European Union deplores yet further instances of armed gangs disrupting peaceful demonstrations on Feb. 12 and Feb. 15," the statement said.
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