13974: (Chamberlain) Haiti-Protests (later story) (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

   By PAISLEY DODDS

   PORT-AU-PRINCE, Dec 4 (AP) -- Shops and schools were bolted shut
Wednesday during a general strike called to protest President Jean-Bertrand
Aristide's government a day after police and mobs broke up anti-government
demonstrations.
   Nearly 200 businesses, including banks and gas stations, closed in the
capital of Port-au-Prince, while others in the northern provinces were
shuttered in solidarity. Business leaders said other strikes would follow
if government reforms weren't made.
   The call for the general strike came hours after whip-wielding Aristide
partisans and police firing tear gas broke up anti-government
demonstrations across the country Tuesday.
   U.S. Ambassador Brian Dean Curran pleaded for calm in the impoverished
nation besieged by growing instability.
   "The solution to Haiti's problem is not in the street but through
elections," Curran said. "We urge people to refrain from violence. People
have the right to demonstrate freely and the United States regrets that
that right was denied Tuesday."
   Pressure has been mounting on Aristide to step down, but he has refused.
Parliamentary elections are slated for next year, but presidential
elections aren't scheduled until 2005. Some leaders say elections are
impossible given the current political instability.
   At least 16 people were injured in Tuesday's protests -- during a third
week of steady demonstrations against Aristide's embattled government.
   "The strike was a unanimous reaction to the criminal violence of the
government," said opposition leader and former Haitian Army Col. Himmler
Rebu, who participated in a 1989 failed coup against then-dictator Prosper
Avril.
   "There can be no fair elections as long as Aristide is in power, but we
will not use violence to resolve the problem of violence," he said.
   Traffic was light on the streets Wednesday, but the airport stayed open.
Many informal merchants who couldn't afford to close remained open.
   "I don't have the luxury of not working," said Pesan Claude, a
50-year-old florist in the suburb of Petionville. "I'm not interested in
anything else except taking care of my family."
   Aristide, whose Lavalas Family party swept what observers said were
flawed elections in 2000, has blamed the opposition and the international
community for deserting the country in its greatest time of need. Since the
flawed elections, foreign aid has come to a halt.
   Fifteen major business associations were participating in the strike. In
a written statement, they expressed concerned that "the democratic process
is in grave danger."
   Rebu, who closed his fitness centers for the strike, said if the
government doesn't respect opposing points of views, leaders will present a
declaration that could ask for Aristide's resignation and the establishment
of a provisional government. A similar declaration helped push
then-President Paul E. Magloire from power in 1956.
   Rebu urged the international community to recognize what he called
Aristide's unwillingness to govern democratically.
   The United States helped restore Aristide to power in 1994 after he was
ousted in a coup in 1991. Facing a term limit, Aristide ceded power to
chosen successor Rene Preval in 1996. Aristide won a second five-year term
in November 2000.
   In the last few years, poverty has deepened in this Caribbean nation and
investment has dried up.
   "Production has declined, tourism has disappeared, and we have lost many
assembly jobs to the Dominican Republic," said one businessman and strike
organizer who spoke on condition of anonymity, fearing retaliation.