U.S. Preparing Guantanamo Bay for Refugees...

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If something goes awry in Haiti, the refugees will be taken there.

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States is preparing a detention center at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba to house tens of thousands of refugees who may flee unrest in Haiti, officials in humanitarian organizations said on Wednesday.

One official said the State Department had briefed a number of non-governmental organizations on its plans to accommodate as many as 50,000 refugees in the detention facility until they could be sent back to Haiti.

The facility would not be in the same place as the prison camp being operated by the U.S. military for detainees captured in Afghanistan and being treated as enemy combatants in the "war on terrorism."

"The State Department told us they were getting slots ready for as many as 50,000 at Guantanamo and they would like humanitarian organizations to be involved in caring for these people," said one official, who asked not to be named.

Another source, confirming this, said the humanitarian organizations were considering their response to the request to be involved in running the camp.

A State Department official said: "We are ready for that type of situation. There are contingencies planning to provide for placing people there."

The United States has used Guantanamo Bay to house Haitian refugees in the past. In the early 1990s, when Haiti was under military rule, over 30,000 refugees were held there.

Violent protests against the rule of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide have exploded into a full-scale armed revolt in recent days.

More than 35 people have been killed in the violence. On Wednesday, police and supporters of Aristide shot dead three people, smashed down doors and trashed homes in a sweep through the city of St. Marc to mop up remnants of an armed revolt there, residents said.

Gunfire rang out over a slum area and a pall of smoke rose from one burning building in the coastal city that was taken over by rebels at the weekend.

According to the U.S. Coast Guard, the number of Haitians intercepted while trying to flee their country has risen so far this year, but is still far below the levels seen in the early 1990s. For instance, in 1992, the Coast Guard intercepted over 31,000 Haitians.

In fiscal year 2003, which ended last September, the number was 2,013. Since October, the number was 1,125. (Additional reporting by Saul Hudson)