13975L (Chamberlain) Haitian businesses close in protest (later story) (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 Haiti's capital on Wednesday as the
private sector heeded a call for a general strike in protest against the
government of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.
     Businesses groups and opposition politicians called the strike a day
after Aristide supporters attacked anti-government protesters during
demonstrations in several cities.
     The strike call was also largely followed in northern Cap Haitien and
southern Jacmel, residents in both cities said.
     "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. "We must ... save our country from chaos, anarchy
and prevent the return of dictatorship."
     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.
     Speaking to reporters in the southwestern city of Les Cayes on
Wednesday, Aristide dismissed both the strike and the violence against
anti-government protesters.
     "The solution to the problems of Haiti is to have elections, and to do
that we must form a new electoral council," said Aristide, referring to a
two-year-old political impasse.
     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 the 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 Wednesday, the U.S. State Department called on the government to
restore a "climate of security" and on all sides to work toward a peaceful
resolution to the crisis.
     "We are particularly troubled by the violence and intimidation
perpetrated by government-backed "popular organizations" and their allies
in Port au Prince, Gonaives, and Cap Haitien," State Department spokesman
Philip Reeker said. "The United States deplores the deterioration of the
political climate in Haiti that these events represent."
     On Tuesday, several thousand Aristide supporters attacked hundreds of
anti-Aristide demonstrators and journalists with stones and bottles in
Port-au-Prince.
     Anti-government protesters were also attacked in 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
television showed police beating students and hoisting a flag the students
had lowered to half-staff in protest.
     "We condemn violence," Secretary of State for Communications Mario
Dupuy said 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.