14410: Marville: Government supporters clash with marchers in Haiti (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Serge Marville <sergemarville@hotmail.com>


Government supporters clash with marchers in Haiti

By Michael Deibert, Reuters

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti, Jan. 10 — About a dozen people
were injured, some seriously, when supporters of
Haiti's President Jean-Bertrand Aristide clashed with
opponents trying to march on the National Palace on
Friday, witnesses said.

A journalist, Rosny Mathieu, an employee of private
station Magik Stereo FM, was among those hurt. A rock
gashed his head as Aristide's supporters threw rocks
and bottles at a crowd of hundreds of marchers,
witnesses said.

The anti-government marchers, incensed by rising fuel
costs and what critics charge is Aristide's
increasingly corrupt and repressive rule, were
attacked as they approached the center of
Port-au-Prince in an attempt to march on the National
Palace in the latest in a series of protests to hit
the impoverished Caribbean nation in recent months.

Pro-government demonstrators said they were also
attacked by police, whom they said beat them with
whips and wooden clubs grabbed from the government
supporters' own hands.

''They attacked us, they injured many, the police. The
government bears responsibility for this,'' leading
Aristide supporter and march organizer Rene Civil told
Radio Galaxie.

Police fired into the air and used tear gas to try to
disperse the crowds. Helicopters carrying heavily
armed riot police swooped low over the capital as
frightened residents alternately huddled on corners
and fled through the narrow streets. Sporadic
automatic weapons fire was heard.

Bleeding protesters and counter-protesters staggered
into the capital's General Hospital in search of aid.

''We are here to show all citizens that they have the
right to protest against Aristide, that they don't
have to be afraid,'' said Himmler Rebu, a former
colonel in the Haitian army that was disbanded by
Aristide in 1994 and a leading Aristide critic.

Government and police officials were not immediately
available for comment on the disturbances, and there
were no official figures for the number of injured.

The march had been scheduled to include members of 11
of Haiti's largest trade unions, but they did not show
up after their meeting place, one of the city's main
bus depots, was deluged with chanting Aristide
supporters.

Instead, members of Haiti's Democratic Convergence
opposition coalition spearheaded the protest.

Haiti has seen a wave of anti-government protests in
recent months as students, trade unions and opposition
politicians have taken to the streets calling for
Aristide's resignation.

Aristide, a former Roman Catholic priest, was first
elected in 1990 but ousted in a coup months later.
U.S. troops helped restore him to power in 1994.

Since his re-election in November 2000, he has been
locked in a bitter dispute with the Convergence over
May 2000 parliamentary elections that observers said
were rigged to favor Aristide's Lavalas Family party.




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