Aristide resigns; Bush sends U.S. Marines to Haiti

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti -- President Jean-Bertrand Aristide resigned and flew into exile Sunday, pressured by foreign governments and a bloody rebellion. Gunfire crackled as the capital fell into chaos, and Washington, D.C., dispatched Marines.\nThe Marines were arriving Sunday afternoon, expected to be the first wave of a U.N.-backed international peacekeeping force. France also said it was considering sending troops.\n"The government believes it is essential that Haiti have a hopeful future. This is the beginning of a new chapter," President Bush said at the White House. "I would urge the people of Haiti to reject violence, to give this break from the past a chance to work. And the United States is prepared to help."\nThe head of Haiti's supreme court said he was taking charge of the government, and a key rebel leader said he welcomed the arrival of foreign troops.\n"I think the worst is over, and we're waiting for the international forces. They will have our full cooperation," Guy Philippe told CNN.\nThe U.N. Security Council planned consultations for later Sunday, and the United States hoped it would approve a resolution to authorize peacekeepers for Haiti, which erupted into violence more than three weeks ago when rebels began driving police from towns and cities in the north.\nA U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, would not say how many Marines were expected in the speedy deployment, which President Bush ordered only hours after Aristide fled under pressure from the United States and Haiti's former colonial power France.\nThough not aligned with rebels, the political opposition had also pushed for Aristide to leave for the good of Haiti's 8 million people, angered by poverty, corruption and crime. The uprising -- only the most recent violence in this Caribbean nation -- killed at least 100 people.\nAnarchy spread across Port-au-Prince as news emerged of the president's departure.\nAngry Aristide supporters roamed the streets armed with old rifles, pistols, machetes and sticks. Some fired wildly into crowds on the Champs de Mars, the main square in front of the National Palace. Looters emptied a police station and hit pharmacies, supermarkets and other businesses, mostly on the capital's outskirts.\nInmates were freed from the National Penitentiary and several other jails around the country. The casualty toll was unknown.\n"Chop off their heads, and burn their homes," the rioters screamed, echoing the war cry of Jean-Jacques Dessalines, the general who ousted French troops and torched plantations to end slavery in Haiti.\nSome anti-Aristide militants organized armed posses that prowled the streets in pickup trucks, searching for Aristide supporters. In the back of one a man lay unconscious -- or dead -- with a head wound.\nBut as police moved in during the afternoon and scared away the crowd in the front of the palace, the violence ebbed.\nResidents sat outside their homes in the tropical heat, some listening intently to radios pressed against their ears. Police patrolled several neighborhoods.\nPrime Minister Yvon Neptune told a press conference that Aristide resigned to "prevent bloodshed," but there were conflicting reports on where the ex-leader would go.\nAristide's jet refueled on the island of Antigua and was en route to South Africa, government and airport officials in that Caribbean country said. But officials in Johannesburg said there had been no recent contact with Aristide nor an offer of asylum.\nAnother U.S. official, also speaking on condition of anonymity, said South Africa was the country most often mentioned. Secretary of State Colin Powell conferred on Saturday with South African President Thabo Mbeki.\nNational Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice said Aristide was going to a "third" country, meaning he would not take refuge in the United States as he did the last time he was ousted in 1991.