Haiti Leader Warns of Refugee Wave if U.N. Mission Fails

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — If the U.N. mission fails to restore democracy in this Caribbean country, hordes of Haitians will flee toward the United States, Prime Minister Robert Malval warned Sunday.

He spoke after a night of heavy gunfire in the capital, a stark reminder of the volatile political passions that many fear will force the U.N. peacekeepers into fighting, as has happened in Somalia.

A U.S. warship carrying hundreds of GIs to take part in the U.N. mission is to arrive today. A small contingent of U.S. and Canadian peacekeepers arrived last week.

The U.N. troops are part of a U.N.-brokered plan to restore democracy to the country more than two years after President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, Haiti’s first freely elected leader, was deposed in a military coup.