18134: (Chamberlain) Haiti-Protest (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

   PORT-AU-PRINCE, Jan 27 (AP) -- More than 15,000 people demonstrated
peacefully against President Jean-Bertrand Aristide on Tuesday, in what has
become a near daily show of popular defiance.
   The protesters marched from the suburb of Petionville to a square in
midtown Port-au-Prince.
   The impoverished country has been in turmoil since Aristide's party
swept 2000 legislative elections that observers said were flawed. In the
past four months, at least 49 people have been killed and more than 100
wounded during protests.
   "Aristide promised this year would bring a better life, but it's worse
than ever," said Emmanuel Dorfeuille, a 22-year-old unemployed car
mechanic. "If I don't demonstrate, I might as well drop dead."
   Police on Tuesday ordered that future demonstrations in the capital be
held in a seaside square far away from the National Palace, saying it would
prevent violent street clashes.
   The opposition says it will not hold talks with the government or
participate in new elections unless Aristide resigns, but the president has
said he won't step down until his term ends in 2006.
   Meanwhile, witnesses said a bystander was shot and killed Monday in a
skirmish between police and anti-government demonstrators in the west coast
town of Gonaives.