18255: (Chamberlain) Haiti-Protest (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

   By MICHAEL NORTON

   PORT-AU-PRINCE, Feb 4i (AP) -- Police fired tear gas and warning shots
to break up a clash Wednesday between government supporters and student
protesters.
   The violence came as two Caribbean envoys held a second day of talks
with Haitian opposition leaders in a bid to end the country's political
crisis.
   About 100 students were wrapping up an anti-government protest when
government supporters began throwing rocks and bottles at them, witnesses
and Haitian radio reports said. Students picked up the rocks and threw them
back.
   No serious injuries were reported, but independent Radio Vision 2000
said police detained five students.
   The students had demonstrated outside a courthouse where Luckmane
Delille, a protest leader, was being questioned about violence during an
anti-government march last month.
   "Justice for Luckmane!" the students chanted.
   He has not been charged in the Jan. 18 protest, when unidentified gunmen
opened fire from a car and wounded one man, a bystander.
   The government and opposition have been in a deadlock since 2000
legislative elections that observers said were flawed. The opposition has
refused to participate in elections unless President Jean-Bertrand Aristide
resigns, but he says he won't step down until his term ends in 2006.
   Bahamas Foreign Minister Fred Mitchell and Colin Granderson, assistant
secretary-general of Caribbean Community, met privately with opposition
leaders. The two planned separate talks with Aristide. Granderson said the
15-member Caribbean Community "will continue to engage with both sides."
   At least 51 people have been killed since mid-September in clashes
between police, protesters and Aristide supporters.