13815: (Chamberlain) Haiti-Protest (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

   By MICHAEL NORTON

   PORT-AU-PRINCE, Nov 26 (AP) -- More than 1,000 Haitians demonstrated
against President Jean-Bertrand Aristide on Tuesday and clashed with
Aristide supporters who pelted the protesters with rocks.
   At least one anti-government protester was shot during the demonstration
in Petit-Goave, about 45 miles west of Port-au-Prince, where days earlier
pro-government supporters paralyzed city streets and businesses by blocking
roads with flaming barricades.
   During anti-Aristide demonstrations on Monday in Port-au-Prince,
Petit-Goave and the town of Gonaives, at least nine people were injured,
including Ronald Jesse, a high school student shot twice in the head when
200 heavily armed Aristide partisans disrupted the Gonaives protests.
   Jesse was in critical condition on Tuesday. His shooting heightened
emotions in Haiti, where protests have been building against Aristide's
government, blamed by many for deepening despair in the impoverished
nation.
   "In what kind of country are we living in if children can be shot at as
though it means nothing," said a declaration signed by Haiti's foremost
novelist Gary Victor and 14 other writers.
   Aristide's government has blamed much of the nation's insecurity on a
lack of international support. Since flawed elections in May 2000 gave
Aristide's governing Lavalas Family party most of the parliamentary seats,
the international community has suspended millions of dollars of aid.
   Aristide won the presidency in 1990 but was overthrown in a coup after
less than a year in office. He lived in exile until the United States
helped restore him to power in 1994, completing the remainder of his term,
then ceding power to Rene Preval. Aristide returned to power in 2000.