Aristide accuses America of coup

Mr Aristide was flown out of the country on Sunday as rebels closed in on the capital Port-au-Prince.

His comments came after the US had strongly denied claims that the president was kidnapped and forced to leave Haiti by its forces.

As rebels paraded through the capital, Haiti's neighbours voiced concern at the ousting of an elected leader.

Mr Aristide, along with his wife and children, arrived in the Central African Republic on Monday and are expected to remain in the country for a few days before attempting to move to another destination - thought to be South Africa - to seek political asylum.

The ousted president told CNN television: "I was told that to avoid bloodshed I'd better leave."

Crowds numbering thousands in Port-au-Prince greeted the rebels on Monday with cries of "freedom" and the name of their leader, Guy Phillipe, as they moved through the city.

But there were reports, too, of reprisals with one reporter spotting four bodies of people shot in the back of the head with their hands tied behind their backs.

An advance guard of American marines and French soldiers has arrived at Port-au-Prince to try to restore order.

The troops are part of an international force authorised by the United Nations.

'Absurd'

An American friend of the deposed Haitian leader, Randall Robinson, told CNN that Mr Aristide had told him he had been abducted from his home by about 20 US soldiers in full battle gear and put on a plane.

US Secretary of State Colin Powell stressed that Mr Aristide had been accompanied into exile by his own security agents and said such claims were "absurd".

Officials in the CAR have said the deposed leader is a "free man" in their country.

Colin Granderson, the secretary-general of the Caribbean community, Caricom, told the BBC that its members were very unhappy about the developments in Haiti - which had come as it tried to negotiate a power-sharing deal.

Speaking ahead of a Caricom summit on Tuesday in Jamaica, Mr Granderson said the removal of Mr Aristide had set a dangerous precedent.

Haiti, he added, had already suffered so many coups and it might have been best to avoid another.

The UN has announced it is sending an assessment team into Haiti within days to plan its future peacekeeping operations there.

Spokesmen for the advance guard of US Marines and French soldiers now on the ground reported no resistance to their deployment.

The US has pledged 1,500 to 2,000 troops to serve in the force, which is expected to number less than 5,000.

Canadian special forces are also at Port-au-Prince airport, where they have been helping Canadian nationals who wish to leave, and Chile is to dispatch 120 special force commandos.

Violent past

The BBC's Stephen Gibbs, in Port-au-Prince, says a carnival atmosphere greeted the rebels' arrival with Mr Philippe, a former army officer, announcing he wanted to work with the local police force and the international troops to restore security.

But mingling with the rebel leaders in their hour of triumph was at least one figure from Haiti's recent violent past, Louis-Jodel Chamblain - a convicted killer who led an army death squad in Haiti in the early 1990s.

The international human rights agency Amnesty International called on Monday for Chamblain to be arrested by peacekeepers.

The US also voiced concern, with Mr Powell remarking that "some of these individuals, [Washington] would not want to see re-enter civil society in Haiti because of their past records".

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/3524273.stm