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Human rights workers, missionaries flee Haiti
Port-Au-Prince, Haiti, Feb 26: Koenraad Denayer has one of the riskiest jobs in Haiti -- a human rights worker. So he, his wife and baby daughter were getting on the next -- perhaps the last -- flight out of town.
Port-Au-Prince, Haiti, Feb 26: Koenraad Denayer has one of the riskiest jobs in Haiti -- a human rights worker. So he, his wife and baby daughter were getting on the next -- perhaps the last -- flight out of town.
''Human right workers fought over a decade ago to get a military dictatorship out of Haiti. Now it looks like the army's coming backing in. We are ripe targets,'' said the 32-year-old Belgian who works for the national coalition of Haitian rights.
An array of foreigners, from bearded human rights workers in T-shirts to spotlessly dressed US missionaries, crowded the capital's chaotic international airport yesterday to catch a flight out of a country torn by a three-week insurgency by armed rebels, many of them former soldiers from Haiti's disbanded Army.
Rebels in control of half the country said this week they would be in the capital within days to oust President Jean-Bertrand Aristide and there was chaos in the city. Barricades set up by scared residents and pro-Aristide gangs sprung up. Tires, concrete blocks and burned-out cars littered the streets.
At the airport, Haitians and foreigners tried to squeeze two or three at a time through metal detector gates to reach the check-in desk. There were scuffles with airport staff in the sweltering heat.
Some people were relieved just to have reached the airport. Most were forced to negotiate barricades often manned by nervous armed young men, some who were reported to be robbing and threatening passersby.
''It was miraculous we made it to the airport,'' said Elder Tougas, a US missionary dressed in a smart suit and tie as he loaded luggage out of a van.
Some US missionaries -- there are about 5,000 in Haiti – said they were made to get out of their cars and walk before the few police still trying to keep law and order in an anarchic city picked them up in garbage-strewn streets. Bureau Report
An array of foreigners, from bearded human rights workers in T-shirts to spotlessly dressed US missionaries, crowded the capital's chaotic international airport yesterday to catch a flight out of a country torn by a three-week insurgency by armed rebels, many of them former soldiers from Haiti's disbanded Army.
Rebels in control of half the country said this week they would be in the capital within days to oust President Jean-Bertrand Aristide and there was chaos in the city. Barricades set up by scared residents and pro-Aristide gangs sprung up. Tires, concrete blocks and burned-out cars littered the streets.
At the airport, Haitians and foreigners tried to squeeze two or three at a time through metal detector gates to reach the check-in desk. There were scuffles with airport staff in the sweltering heat.
Some people were relieved just to have reached the airport. Most were forced to negotiate barricades often manned by nervous armed young men, some who were reported to be robbing and threatening passersby.
''It was miraculous we made it to the airport,'' said Elder Tougas, a US missionary dressed in a smart suit and tie as he loaded luggage out of a van.
Some US missionaries -- there are about 5,000 in Haiti – said they were made to get out of their cars and walk before the few police still trying to keep law and order in an anarchic city picked them up in garbage-strewn streets. Bureau Report