.: Print Version :.

WASHINGTON - U.S. Marines are leading an international peacekeeping force being sent to Haiti to quell violence that erupted after President Jean-Bertrand Aristide resigned and fled into exile.

President Bush on Sunday ordered deployment of a contingent of Marines from Camp Lejeune, N.C., to help restore order in the Caribbean country, where more than 100 people have died in a four-week uprising. Fewer than 100 Marines arrived in the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince on Sunday night; more were to arrive today.

"This is the beginning of a new chapter in the country's history," Bush said after returning to the White House from Camp David, Md. "I would urge the people of Haiti to reject violence to give this break from the past a chance to work. The United States is prepared to help."

The crisis in Haiti has been growing since Aristide's party won flawed legislative elections in 2000, and international donors froze millions of dollars in aid.

Opponents said Aristide broke promises to help the poor, permitted corruption that was fueled by drug trafficking and was behind attacks that armed gangs made on his critics. Aristide, who was once backed by the United States, had denied these charges.

As the Marines flew to Haiti late Sunday, the U.N. Security Council voted unanimously to authorize the immediate deployment of an international military force in Haiti for three months. The Marine contingent is to number a few hundred troops eventually and is expected to be joined in coming days by soldiers from France, Canada and several Caribbean nations.

An additional 50 Marines, members of an anti-terrorist security team, had already been in Port-au-Prince for several days helping secure the U.S. Embassy and other buildings. The U.S. Coast Guard also has been on duty picking up Haitians trying to flee the violence, and returning them home.

Aristide and a small entourage including his wife flew to the impoverished nation of Central African Republic today. Upon his arrival, he gave a short address to Central African Republic state radio - his first public comments since leaving Haiti.

"In overthrowing me, they cut down the tree of peace," the exiled leader declared. "But it will grow again, because the roots are well-planted."

Communications Minister Parfait Mbaye of West Central Africa said the United States, France and the west African nation of Gabon helped negotiate Aristide's start in exile.

In accordance with Haiti's constitution, Supreme Court President Boniface Alexandre was sworn in as head of state until presidential elections are held.

At a debate Sunday among Democratic presidential candidates in New York City, John Kerry said he would have never allowed the situation in Haiti to "get out of control the way it did." The Massachusetts senator said Bush's actions were "late, as usual."

North Carolina Sen. John Edwards agreed, saying, "We should have been engaged over a long period of time, in a serious way, at least through diplomacy."

Some members of Congress, meanwhile, accused the administration of engineering Aristide's ouster, which Bush aides denied.

Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Calif., said that in a country "where a true democracy has recently emerged after decades of autocratic rule," the elected president "has been pushed out by an administration anxious to get rid of him."

In the early 1990s, the United States vowed to defeat a military junta that seized power from Aristide less than a year after he was elected. This time, though, Bush showed Aristide the door, applying various pressures during the weekend to urge him to step down.

Aristide repeatedly vowed to remain in office, but he may have reconsidered after learning over the weekend that the United States would not protect him, an administration official said on condition of anonymity.

Guards from Aristide's security team, employed by the San Francisco-based Steele Foundation, asked the U.S. Embassy in Port-au-Prince on Saturday whether they could count on American protection in the event of rebel hostilities at the presidential palace, the official said.

Aristide's guard were told that no such protection would be provided, the official said.

In addition, the official said Secretary of State Colin Powell called former Rep. Ron Dellums, D-Calif., whom Aristide hired as a Washington lobbyist. According to this account, Powell told Dellums he had learned that Guy Philippe, the 35-year-old leader of a band of rebels threatening to take over Haiti, was planning to enter Port-au-Prince on Sunday and make threats on Aristide's life.

Powell told Dellums the United States had no plans to protect Aristide, the official said.

That conversation followed a White House statement Saturday that the "long-simmering" crisis in Haiti was largely of Aristide's making. The White House said Aristide had not adhered to democratic principles and that gangs directed by him had looted and attacked people and property.

---

Associated Press writers George Gedda and Robert Burns contributed to this report.