9941: Clashes erupt after funeral of Haitian journalist (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

     By Michael Deibert

     PETIT GOAVE, Haiti, Dec 11 (Reuters) - Anti-government demonstrators
hurled stones at Haitian riot police, who responded with tear gas and shots
fired in the air, in clashes after the funeral of a murdered journalist on
Tuesday.
     Eyewitnesses said an infant, an elderly woman and several other people
were overcome by tear gas and received medical treatment during the unrest
in the coastal city of Petite Goave, 56 miles (90 km) southwest of the
capital, Port-au-Prince.
     The clashes erupted after the funeral of Brignol Lindor, the news
director of private radio station station Echo 2000, who was hacked to
death by unidentified attackers on Dec. 3.
     It was widely believed among mourners that Lindor was killed by
supporters of the government of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.
     A government official said last week that Lindor had apparently been
attacked not because he was a journalist but because he was belonged to the
opposition. The official added that the government deplored the killing.
     At Lindor's funeral on Tuesday, about 2,000 mourners marched through
the town, where support for the opposition Democratic Convergence alliance
runs high, bearing his coffin and chanting, "We are not afraid" and "Down
with Aristide."
     Rows of uniformed schoolchildren carried pink wreaths to the
blue-and-white Cathedral Saint Pierre as other mourners jeered at the
masked and hooded riot police standing nearby.
     Petite Goave has been particularly tense during the Haitian political
dispute that began with legislative elections in May 2000.
     Critics in the Caribbean nation and abroad have said that because of
the method used to calculate results, Aristide's ruling Lavalas Family was
given too many Senate seats.
     The government has been negotiating with the Convergence to rerun
elections, but despite urging from the Organization of American States, the
two sides have not reached agreement.