18164: (Chamberlain) Haiti-Protest Funeral (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

                         Haiti-Protest Funeral



   PORT-AU-PRINCE, Jan 29 (AP) -- A funeral for a slain high-school student
turned into a protest Thursday, with mourners blaming embattled President
Jean-Bertrand Aristide for the teenager's death.
   "Arrest Aristide!" about 100 mourners shouted, accompanying a hearse
from a Roman Catholic church to the capital's municipal cemetery.
   Emmanuel Colastin, 15, died Jan. 18 when gunmen opened fire from a car
as he walked on a street after an anti-government demonstration in the
capital. Colastin didn't take part in the demonstration.
   Police accompanied the funeral procession, which ended without incident.
   Haiti has been in turmoil since Aristide's Lavalas Family party swept
2000 legislative elections that observers said were flawed. In the past
four months of protest, at least 50 people have been killed.
   Leaders of the 15-member Caribbean Community have been trying to help
Haiti out of its three-year political impasse, meeting in the Bahamas last
week with Haitian opposition members and with Aristide in Haiti on Sunday.
   The opposition has said it would not hold talks with the government or
participate in new elections unless Aristide resigns. Aristide has said he
plans to serve out his term, which ends in 2006.