Bush Would Bar Haitian Refugees

President Bush said Wednesday that the United States will turn back Haitian refugees trying to reach American shores as chaos gripped the impoverished Caribbean nation.

U.S. Marines escorted foreigners trying to flee Haiti's capital, looting broke out and opposition leaders urged a "timely and orderly" departure of beleaguered President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.

Haiti has no military — it was disbanded after U.S. troops returned Aristide, Haiti's first freely elected leader, to power in 1994. So Aristide supporters armed themselves with old rifles and pistols and built junkpile barricades to block the road into Port-au-Prince, setting some barriers ablaze with burning tires.

One American abandoned his car at a roadblock and set off on foot for the airport, carrying his suitcase. Thugs were robbing people at the barricades.

U.S. Marines escorted a convoy of U.N. personnel, after the United Nations on Wednesday ordered all nonessential staff and family to leave.

Canada confirmed that a team of soldiers flew into Port-au-Prince on Tuesday to aid a possible evacuation of some 1,000 citizens, Foreign Affairs spokesman Reynald Doiron said in Ottawa.

Haiti's opposition coalition confirmed its refusal to agree to an international peace plan that would have Aristide remain as president but share power with his political rivals.

The Democratic Platform coalition, a broad alliance of opposition groups, rejected the plan despite last-ditch efforts by Secretary of State Colin Powell to stem a crisis sparked by a three-week uprising by rebels who have overrun the northern half of the country.

"It is absolutely necessary for the international community to accompany the country in its quest for a mechanism that will allow for a timely and orderly departure of Jean-Bertrand Aristide," the Democratic Platform coalition said in a statement.

"The first step in the resolution to the crisis is Aristide's departure," opposition leader Evans Paul said at a news conference.

A State Department official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the United States was still working with the parties to win acceptance of the plan. France, meanwhile, was trying to convene a meeting in Paris between Aristide and opposition leaders later in the week.

French U.N. Ambassador Jean-Marc de La Sabliere said Tuesday that diplomats were considering proposing "a police force, or a civilian force" for approval by the U.N. Security Council.

Even if the opposition coalition had accepted the U.S. peace plan, the rebels still insist they will lay down their arms only when Aristide is out of power.

Aristide, who has accepted the plan, appealed to the world for urgent help and warned of a rising death toll and a new exodus of "boat people" if rebels try to take the capital. At least 70 people have been killed in the three-week uprising, about 40 of them police officers.

"Should those killers come to Port-au-Prince, you may have thousands of people who may be killed," Aristide said. "We need the presence of the international community as soon as possible."

The United States also may seek a U.N. Security Council resolution authorizing dispatch of international peacekeepers to Haiti if a settlement between government and opposition forces is reached, a U.S. official said Tuesday.

Britain and Australia, meanwhile, urged their citizens to get out of Haiti, following similar warnings from the United States, France and Mexico. There are about 30,000 foreigners in the former French colony, 20,000 of them Americans.

International aid groups warned of looming hunger and health crises if the violence is not brought under control.

Human Rights Watch said the international community should consider sending soldiers and police to Haiti, citing the "horrendous human rights records" of some rebel leaders and the "violent and lawless methods" adopted by pro-government gangs.

In a letter to Powell, Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Calif., accused the Bush administration of standing by while an elected government faces violent overthrow.

"People are dying, and our own commitment to democracy is under siege … our failure to support the democratic process and help restore order looks like a covert effort to overthrow a government," Lee said.

The U.N. World Food Program said looters had ransacked one of its warehouses in Cap-Haitien on Sunday, after the northern city was seized by rebels.

The agency said it still has sufficient stocks either in Haiti or on the way, but it warned that "widespread food shortages are inevitable," unless the security situation improves soon.

The United States and the Dominican Republic, which shares the island of Hispaniola with Haiti, feared a surge of Haitian refugees.

The Dominican Republic sent 1,500 extra troops to double the number patrolling its 225-mile border with Haiti, said Gen. Jose Miguel Soto Jimenez, the country's top military official.

White House spokesman Scott McClellan said U.S. planes were patrolling Haitian shores to guard against boat people. "We've not seen any indication to indicate a surge in migration at this point," he said, making clear any migrants caught would be returned home.

Aristide, hugely popular when he was elected, has since lost a lot of support. Opponents accuse the former priest of failing to help those in need, condoning corruption and masterminding attacks on opponents by armed gangs. Aristide denies the charges. Flawed legislative elections in 2000 led international donors to freeze millions of dollars in aid.