13966: (Chamberlain) Haitian businesses close in protest against Aristide (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

     By Michael Deibert

     PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti, Dec. 4, (Reuters) - Businesses were shuttered
and many schools and banks closed in the capital on Wednesday as Haiti's
private sector heeded a call by the opposition for a general strike in
protest against the government of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.
     Businesses called the strike a day after Aristide supporters attacked
anti-government protesters during demonstrations in several cities.
     "The general strike of Wednesday, December 4, 2002, is a protest to
say 'no' to intolerance, 'no' to the unacceptable," said a statement by 12
business organizations late on Tuesday. "We must ... save our country from
chaos, anarchy and prevent the return of dictatorship."
     Government officials had no immediate comment on the strike.
     The impoverished Caribbean nation of 8 million people has been rocked
by a series of demonstrations and counter-protests in the last three weeks,
including an anti-Aristide rally in Cap Haitien on Nov. 17 that attracted
more than 10,000 people.
     A former Roman Catholic priest, Aristide rallied Haiti's poor at the
end of a 30-year dictatorship in the mid-1980s and was elected president in
1990, only to be overthrown in a military coup seven months later.
     U.S. troops helped restore him to power in 1994 and he won a second
term as president in November 2000. Since returning to office he has been
mired in a dispute with Democratic Convergence opposition coalition over
contested May 2000 legislative elections.
     The stalemate has stalled foreign aid and Haitians have seen prices
soar, the value of their currency slump and political violence escalate.
     On Tuesday, several thousand Aristide supporters attacked hundreds of
anti-Aristide demonstrators and journalists with stones and bottles in
Port-au-Prince. Police, though present, did not stop the violence.
     Anti-government protesters were also attacked in the northern city of
Cap Haitien and the southern city of Petit Goave, where five protesters
were shot, residents said.
     Riot police raided the public State University of Haiti, and local
television showed police beating students and hoisting a flag the students
had lowered to half-staff in protest.
     "We condemn violence," said Secretary of State for Communications
Mario Dupuy on Tuesday. "But people, including government supporters, may
take part in any march they want to."
     Tuesday's demonstrations were held in memory of Brignol Lindor, news
director for Radio Echo 2000 in Petit Goave, who was hacked to death one
year ago, allegedly at the hands of a pro-Aristide group.
     "Everyone now realizes that Aristide must go, and now together we will
make him go," said opposition politician and former Port-au-Prince mayor
Evans Paul, one of Aristide's leading critics.