13925: (Chamberlain) Two killed in Haiti unrest (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

     By Michael Deibert

     PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti, Dec 2 (Reuters)- Two people were shot dead and
more than 20 houses were burned in a Haitian provincial city at the weekend
in gang fighting between factions loyal to President Jean-Bertrand Aristide
and groups trying to oust him, residents reported on Monday.
     The violence, in an impoverished slum area of the northern city of
Gonaives, was the latest unrest to hit the impoverished Caribbean nation
after several weeks of protests against Aristide and counter-demonstrations
by his supporters.
     The fighting erupted on Sunday when gunmen loyal to Jean Tatoune, an
opponent of Aristide, shot dead Evans Auguste, a member of the pro-Aristide
"Cannibal Army" street gang, residents said.
     The Cannibal Army retaliated, burning at least 20 houses in the
Jubilee section and shooting one resident, witnesses said.
     The Cannibal Army is headed by Amiot Metayer, who escaped from prison
in Gonaives along with Tatoune in a spectacular jailbreak in August.
     "They came in and burned the houses because they were trying to get to
Tatoune," one resident, who asked not to be named, told Reuters by
telephone.
     Tatoune, an important figure in the overthrow of the Duvalier family
dictatorship in 1986, became a fierce critic of Aristide, and was serving a
life sentence for his role in the massacre of Aristide supporters in
Metayer's neighborhood in 1994.
     Metayer had been jailed for his role in the torching of homes in the
neighborhood of a rival gang leader last summer.
     They were freed along with some 150 other prisoners when armed Metayer
partisans stormed the Gonaives jail where they were being held on Aug. 2.
Metayer and Tatoune paraded arm-in-arm through the city's streets,
denouncing Aristide and promising to overthrow his government.
     But Metayer has apparently since reconciled with Aristide, and has led
several pro-Aristide marches in the city since his escape. No attempt has
been made to re-arrest him.
     Opposition and student groups have said they will rally for a third
consecutive week across the country of 8 million in protest at a
deteriorating economy and what they charge is Aristide's increasingly
authoritarian rule.
     In Gonaives last week, thousands of protesters marched past barricades
of flaming tires and burning cars, residents said, before being set upon by
rock-throwing and whip-wielding Cannibal Army members. Two policeman were
also shot, officials said.
     A former Roman Catholic priest, Aristide rallied Haiti's poor as
leading figure in the overthrow of 30 years of dictatorship in the
mid-1980's and became the first elected president in 1990, only to be
overthrown in a military coup seven months later.
     Re-instated by U.S. troops in 1994, he returned to office again in
February 2001 but has since been mired in a dispute with the Democratic
Convergence opposition coalition over contested May 2000 legislative
elections.
     The deadlock has stalled over $500 million in desperately needed
international aid. Haiti's currency, the gourde, has lost 40 percent of its
value.