13951: (Chamberlain) Haiti-Protests (later story) (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

   By PAISLEY DODDS

   PETIT-GOAVE, Dec 3 (AP) -- Police fired tear gas to break up
demonstrations Tuesday by thousands of anti-government protesters, as
President Jean-Bertrand Aristide's supporters wielded whips and hurled
rocks to drive away government opponents. At least 14 people were reported
injured.
   Two men were shot by Aristide backers in the town of Petit-Goave, where
police lobbed tear gas canisters into about 2,000 marchers, witnesses said.
   Thousands more protested in several cities, clamoring for immediate
elections and better living conditions. But police and crowds of Aristide
supporters broke up the protests.
   The demonstrators paraded through the streets demanding an end to
Aristide's government and justice in the death of journalist Brignol
Lindor, who was hacked to death a year ago by Aristide supporters.
   "I came to shout 'Down with Aristide!'" said 12-year-old David Merisier,
a student in Petit-Goave, about 45 miles west of Port-au-Prince, the
capital. "We can't eat. We can't go to school. We're tired of Aristide."
   Meanwhile, about 2,000 Aristide supporters broke up a demonstration in
Port-au-Prince, wielding whips and throwing stones to drive away
protesters. Witnesses said at least a dozen people were injured.
   Police also fired tear gas as they disrupted a march by some 2,000
people in northern Cap-Haitien and wielded batons to break up a 500-person
protest in northwestern Gonaives, witnesses said. At least two protesters
were reported arrested in Gonaives.
   Pressure has been mounting on Aristide's government, which has been
stymied by a lack of international aid and investment and growing poverty
in Haiti, the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. Although
parliamentary elections are planned for next year, presidential elections
aren't planned until 2005.
   Classes were canceled and businesses closed for protests marking the
one-year anniversary of Lindor's killing outside Petit-Goave.
   Lindor was slain after he allowed opposition politicians on his
talk-show program. On Tuesday, many of the same opposition leaders spoke on
the air, demanding justice.
   "Lindor's death is something that has affected the national
consciousness of Haiti," said Arbrun Alizy, 31, director of Radio Echo,
which Lindor once ran. "There still has not been any justice."
   At least 10 teenagers were injured last week in Petit-Goave after
demonstrators called for Aristide to step down. At least three people have
been killed in three weeks of protests in Haiti.
   On Tuesday, protesters hung photos of Lindor's mutilated body on
storefront doors. Some later set fire to shacks in Petit-Goave.
   Hundreds more remembered Lindor at a Mass in the capital, while outside
the church, government backers shouted: "If Aristide isn't there, who will
replace him?"
   Opposition leaders in Port-au-Prince said their motorcade was attacked
by hundreds of rock-throwing Aristide supporters while police did nothing.
No one was injured, but cars were damaged in the hail of rocks.
   "Today, the consciousness of the Haitian citizen has been scandalized by
the barbarity of Lavalas," said opposition politician Evans Paul, who was
in the motorcade.
   The government blamed the violence on the opposition, saying new
legislative elections planned for next year are the only solution.
   "We reject violent confrontations," government spokesman Mario Dupuy
said. He blamed the opposition for polarizing the country and said Aristide
wants a "peaceful environment."
   The opposition says it wants the government to guarantee a peaceful
climate before a vote is held.
   In the capital's streets Tuesday, people who refused to accept fliers
with Aristide's photo were lashed with small, rawhide whips. Aristide
supporters beat one man who was wearing an opposition T-shirt and police
rescued one opposition supporter from a group of Aristide backers who had
wrapped a whip around his neck.
   Opposition politician Rene Theodore called for a nationwide general
strike on Wednesday.
   "This government accepts no form of dissent. That's what is called a
dictatorship," Theodore said.
   Aristide won the presidency in 1990, but was overthrown in a coup after
less than a year in office. He lived in exile in Washington until U.S.
troops helped restore him to power in 1994, then ceded power to chosen
successor Rene Preval in 1996. Aristide won a second five-year term in
November 2000.