17813: (Chamberlain) Haiti-Protest Strike (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

   By MICHAEL NORTON

   PORT-AU-PRINCE, Jan. 9 (AP) -- A strike called by Haiti's opposition
shuttered most stores and banks in the capital for a second day Friday, the
latest in a series of protests aimed at pressuring President Jean-Bertrand
Aristide to step down.
   New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced he would cancel a trip to the
Caribbean nation this weekend due to the unrest. On Wednesday, thousands of
students and other Aristide opponents marched in a protest marred by
violence that left three dead and more than two dozen injured.
   Meanwhile, most doctors didn't report for work Friday at the capital's
State University Hospital and there were noticeably few customers at
outdoor markets, though vendors were out as usual.
   "My only faith is in God. I don't know what's happening, but I know I'm
poor, my children are hungry and I can't make ends meet if there's no
peace," said Margarethe Pierre, 45, a mother of five selling clocks and
radios from a stand.
   Informal businesses like hers dominate Haiti's withering economy, but
government spokesman Mario Dupuy said that many people kept working.
Government offices were open and buses were running.
   "Most people went about their business as usual," he said, adding that
protests and strikes are "leading the country nowhere."
   During protests in the past four months, at least 45 people have been
killed and more than 100 wounded.
   Tensions have been rising since Aristide's party won 2000 legislative
elections that observers said were flawed. The opposition refuses to
participate in new elections unless Aristide steps down, but he says he
will serve out his term until 2006.