13854: (Chamberlain) Haitian president refuses to resign amid protests (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

     By Michael Deibert

     PORT AU PRINCE, Haiti, Nov 28 (Reuters) - Haitian President
Jean-Bertrand Aristide rejected opposition calls for his resignation on
Thursday after two weeks of anti-government protests and suggested new
elections as a solution to the country's political turmoil.
     "I will not leave office, coup d'etat is not a solution to Haiti's
problems," Aristide told reporters at the National Palace. "The best
resolution to this crisis is to form an electoral council and hold new
elections ."
     The president's comments came on a day that saw renewed, large-scale
protests in the poor Caribbean nation of 8 million, as opposition and
student groups rallied for a second straight week across the country to
protest a deteriorating economy and what they charge is Aristide's
increasingly authoritarian rule.
     In the northern city of Gonaives, thousands of protesters marched past
barricades of flaming tires and burning cars, residents said, before being
set upon by rock-throwing members of the "Cannibal Army" street gang led by
Aristide supporter Amiot Metayer.
     The rally was timed to coincide with the anniversary of the shootings
of three schoolchildren by the Haitian army during the dictatorship of the
Duvalier family in 1985. Two Haitian riot police were shot and wounded
Thursday in a Gonaives slum, local media said.
     Hundreds of students marched in the southern city of Jacmel, demanding
Aristide's ouster and the reinstatement of three local teachers allegedly
fired for participating in an anti-government demonstration, residents
said.
     In central Las Cahobas, one government supporter was shot and killed
in a clash between protesters and groups loyal to Aristide, private Radio
Metropole reported.
     "Haiti is a democracy and the people have a right to express their
opinion," Aristide said when asked about the protests.
     A former Roman Catholic priest, Aristide rallied Haiti's poor masses
to overthrow a 30-year dictatorship in the mid-1980's and was first elected
president in 1990, only to be overthrown in a military coup seven months
later.
     Returned by American troops in 1994, he returned to office in February
2001 but has since been bedeviled by a dispute with Democratic Convergence
opposition coalition over contested May 2000 legislative elections.
     At least 30 people have been wounded by gunfire since the new round of
demonstrations began Nov. 17.