197L Haiti Demonstrators Burn Hotel (fwd)

[Robert Corbett <bcorbett@netcom.com>]

From:nozier@tradewind.net

Monday July 19 5:53 PM ET 
Haiti Demonstrators Burn Hotel

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) - Neighborhood vigilantes set fire to a
hotel, blocked streets with flaming tires and smashed the windows of
passing vehicles Monday to protest the fatal shooting of  their leader.
Many shop owners on Jean-Jacques Dessalines Boulevard, the main downtown
artery, closed their stores, fearful of vandalism.Protesters, members of
the Fort St. Clair vigilante group, used gasoline to set the Zipcode
Hotel afire after warning guests to leave. The building was gutted by
the time firemen extinguished the flames.The vigilantes said many gang
members live at the hotel. They promised to continue their protest until
police arrested the killers of their leader. Police made no arrests at
the protest.An unidentified gunman shot and killed Tira Lamarre, 28, on
a busy downtown street around 3 p.m. Friday. Lamarre headed
the vigilante group, which had boasted of having killed more than 20
presumed robbers in their thief-infested downtown neighborhood this
year.Earlier this year, gangsters shot and killed several of its members
in reprisal.