16954: (Chamberlain) Haiti-Protests (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

                                 Haiti-Protests


   By MICHAEL NORTON

   PORT-AU-PRINCE, Oct 15 (AP) -- Protesters demanding the ouster of
President Jean-Bertrand Aristide exchanged gunfire with police Wednesday,
and at least two people were reported wounded.
   Shots were fired after hundreds of demonstrators took to the streets and
set up flaming tire barricades in the town of Gonaives on Haiti's west
coast, the private Haitian broadcaster Radio Transatlantique reported.
   A protester was shot in the head and a police officer was shot in the
shoulder, the station reported.
   Wednesday's clashes came nine years to the day after U.S. troops
restored Aristide to power.
   Violent demonstrations in Gonaives over the past three weeks have killed
at least eight and wounded 29.
   The protests erupted following the slaying of gang leader Amiot Metayer,
who once ruled Gonaives' streets for Aristide. His bullet-riddled body was
found on a roadside Sept 22.
   More than 1,000 anti-Aristide protesters also marched Wednesday through
the west coast town of St. Marc, about 45 miles northwest of the capital of
Port-au-Prince.
   Police dispersed the demonstration with tear gas, saying protesters had
not followed the authorized route, Radio Metropole reported.
   Aristide became Haiti's first democratically leader in 1990 but was
ousted in an army coup in September 1991. He spent three years in exile in
the United States and was restored to power on Oct. 15, 1994, following a
U.S. invasion.
   Aristide stepped down in 1996 because of a term limit, ceding power to
hand-picked successor Rene Preval, and was re-elected in 2000.