#1893: Thousands Protest Haiti Tourist Killing (fwd)

[Robert Corbett <bcorbett@netcom.com>]

From:nozier@tradewind.net

Thousands Protest Haiti Tourist Killing  04:57 p.m Jan 18, 2000 Eastern 

 PORT-AU-PRINCE (Reuters) - Between 10,000 and 15,000 people marched
through the southern Haitian city of Jacmel on Tuesday to protest the
murder of two French tourists and their Haitian driver, police said.  
Yveline Mullier, whose husband and daughter were killed on  Jan. 12, and
the family of driver Aubin Aspil took part in the demonstration calling
for justice and an end to violent crime,Paul-Antoine Sauvignon, police
director of the Southeast department, told Reuters.  The badly beaten
bodies of Fernand Mullier, 53, and his daughter Celine, 17, visitors
from the Department du Nord in France; and Aspil were found separately
in Jacmel last week. Their rental car was missing. Police, acting on
information from the public, quickly arrested six suspects, officials
said.  The killings horrified residents of the poor Caribbean nation    
and sent a shock wave through the tourist industry, which  hopes to
spearhead the renewal of Haiti's moribund  economy.  Students, school
children, business people and others participated in the march through
Jacmel, carrying signs that  said, ``No to violence,'' and ``Hand over
the criminals, so that  these crimes are never repeated in Jacmel.''   
The march was organized by Jacmel Town Hall, the Chamber of Commerce of
the Southeast department, the Office of Tourism and the Governmental
Delegate's office. Businesses in Jacmel closed for a half-day, Sauvignon
said.  ``Never, never again must Jacmel see another atrocity like     
this,'' read a banner carried by Sauvignon and city and state officials. 
 Haiti's small and poorly equipped police force is struggling to protect
the population from a rising number of armed criminals. On Monday local
radio reported five more killings in three separate incidents, all
apparently involving theft of money or vehicles. One of the victims was
an American tourist, shot and killed on a highway north of the capital
on Saturday.