18012: (Chamberlain) Six shot in anti-government march in Haiti (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

     By Amy Bracken

    PORT-AU-PRINCE, Jan 18 (Reuters) - One person was shot dead and five
were wounded on Sunday when gunmen took to the streets to break up an
anti-government demonstration in Haiti's capital.
     People hiding in allies and on rooftops threw rocks and bottles and
fired shots as thousands of anti-government demonstrators marched through
the streets of Port-au-Prince. The demonstrators were protected by dozens
of police officers, and most of the damage occurred before and after the
protest.
     Five people were shot in the street outside a state-owned television
station along the route of the marchers but before they had arrived on the
scene, according to witnesses. A local radio station said at least two of
the wounded were merchants.
     After the demonstration, groups of marchers retraced the route to
return to their homes and cars, while armed men in trucks drove around the
city, firing their weapons. One demonstrator was hit and killed by a
bullet, witnesses said.
     A local hospital confirmed that one person had been fatally shot and
three others were treated for gunshot wounds.
     The protest, like many in recent weeks, was organized by leaders of a
coalition intent on forcing President Jean-Bertrand Aristide to resign.
     Several thousand students and others walked and ran up and down the
capital's hilly streets for almost four hours, chanting anti-Aristide
slogans.
     The police, recently criticized by demonstrators and the international
community for failing to protect anti-Aristide demonstrators, were
repeatedly applauded by protesters as they chased and arrested attackers.
     Some chanted, "Down with Aristide; long live the police!" and "Down
with Aristide; long live the students!"
     One demonstrator, a student and off-duty police officer who feared the
consequences if his name was revealed, said he marched because "Aristide
leads a country in which impunity and criminality rule."
     He said: "Police can provide security if Aristide wants them to. If he
doesn't want them to, they can't."
     Aristide, Haiti's first democratically elected president, has seen his
popularity plummet in recent years amid a worsening economy and charges of
corruption and human rights abuses. Demonstrations, strikes and gatherings
calling for his resignation have dominated the local news in recent months.