Panic Overtakes Haiti's Capital

Foreigners tried to flee Haiti on Wednesday, some guarded by U.S. Marines, as looting erupted in the capital and pressure mounted for international intervention in the 3-week-old uprising against President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.

Panic overtook the city, although there was no sign of the rebels who have overrun half of Haiti and are threatening Port-au-Prince.

President Bush said the United States is encouraging the international community to provide a strong "security presence" in Haiti as Washington and its allies work for a political solution.

Opposition leaders asked the international community to help ensure a "timely and orderly" departure of Aristide.

And French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin urged the "immediate" dispatch of an international civilian force to restore order in its former colony.

"This force would be charged with assuring the restoration of public order and support actions in the field of the international community," de Villepin said in a statement that stopped short of calling for Aristide's resignation.

"As far as President Aristide is concerned, he bears grave responsibility for the current situation," de Villepin said. "It's his decision, it's his responsibility. Every one sees that this is about opening a new page in the history of Haiti."

France also said it wants human rights observers sent to Haiti and a "long term" engagement of international aid aimed at reconstructing its economy.

Jamaica's U.N. Ambassador Stafford O. Neil said at the United Nations that it might be possible to dispatch a small "interposition force" to keep the rebels and Aristide supporters apart.

One U.N. diplomat noted the rebels can only come to Port-au-Prince by two roads, so placing such a force would be relatively easy and would buy time for a political solution.

As of Wednesday morning, rebel leader Guy Philippe remained in Cap-Haitien, Haiti's second-largest city.

Roads all over Port-au-Prince were blocked by dozens of flaming barricades, shops were shuttered and hotels were barred against looters.

The roadblocks were intended to stop the rebels who began the uprising Feb. 5, but militants at the barricades also used guns and stones to stop cars and loot them of handbags, luggage and cell phones. Police did not intervene.

American Airlines delayed three of its five daily flights to the United States because crew and passengers were trying to get through the roadblocks. Air Jamaica canceled its flights to Haiti.

Guy Lockrey, an auto worker from Flint, Mich., abandoned his car at a barricade and was headed to the airport on foot with his suitcase when police picked him up.

"We didn't feel any tension until we got close to the capital," said Lockrey, who had driven from west-central Haiti, where he was helping build a church.

U.S. Marines, who arrived Monday, were to escort a convoy of U.N. personnel. The United Nations on Wednesday ordered all nonessential staff and family to leave.

"The situation is bad and it's becoming worse," said Francoise Gruloos-Ackermans, UNICEF coordinator for Haiti.

Britain and Australia have 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 Haiti, 20,000 of them Americans.

Canada said a team of soldiers flew into Port-au-Prince on Tuesday to aid a possible evacuation of some 1,000 Canadians.

The Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-day Saints was evacuating the last of its 120 missionaries.

"We decided to leave because we heard things are going to get pretty crazy," said Joel Tougas, a church elder from Deep Cove, Canada. "We're hoping to come back when there's peace."

On Tuesday, Aristide warned that if rebels tried to take the capital, thousands could die. At least 70 people have been killed in the uprising, about 40 of them police officers.

Haiti's opposition coalition refused to agree to an international peace plan that diplomats had billed as Haiti's last chance for peace. Aristide on Saturday accepted the plan, which called for him to remain as president but with diminished powers, sharing the government with his political rivals.

"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," said a statement from the opposition Democratic Platform coalition.

It appeared the international community was reconsidering its insistence that Aristide remain president. Two Western diplomats said they and colleagues were preparing a request to ask Aristide to resign.

An opposition politician said foreign diplomats told the Democratic Platform not to say that the international community had rejected their counterproposal.

The counterproposal, sent to Secretary of State Colin Powell on Tuesday, would install a Supreme Court justice as an interim president and ensure the "orderly departure" of Aristide.

In Washington, the top U.S. envoy for the hemisphere, Roger Noriega, told legislators that if a political solution cannot be reached, "they'll consider many things, they'll consider a whole gamut of options, but they do not want to go in and simply prop up Aristide," according to Rep. Lincoln Diaz-Balart, R-Fla.

Bush indicated an international force may be needed to provide security in Haiti, possibly as a way to enforce a diplomatic and political solution.

White House press secretary Scott McClellan said various nations are prepared to "police" a political solution to the violence. "We're working with the international community on these efforts and the international community has made it clear that there would be a police force that could assist or that would help with a political solution, and our commitment is to assist in those efforts," McClellan said.

Bush reiterated that the U.S. Coast Guard will turn back any Haitian refugees trying to reach American shores.

Aristide has lost much popular support amid accusations he condoned corruption, failed to help the poor and brutally suppressed the opposition.

Haiti has no military — it was disbanded after U.S. troops returned Aristide, Haiti's first freely elected leader, to power in 1994. The military had deposed Aristide in 1991 and instituted a reign of terror.