18488: Esser: Aristide: opposition responsible for violence (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: D. Esser torx@joimail.com

Voice of America
Aristide Blames Haiti Violence on Opposition
Jim Teeple
Port-au-Prince
12 Feb 2004, 04:15 UTC


Haiti's President, Jean Bertrand Aristide says his country's
political opposition is responsible for violence now wracking the
impoverished Caribbean nation. At least three people died Wednesday
in clashes between police and rioters, bringing to 46 the number of
people killed since last week, when armed gangs seized several towns
in the northwest part of the country.

Police say they are making progress clearing armed gangs from towns
near Gonaives, Haiti's fourth largest city, which is about 100
kilometers north of Port-au-Prince. However sporadic violence
continues in the town of St. Marc, 70-kilometers north of the
capital, where police claimed to have routed armed gangs on Monday.

"When I say we prefer to go slowly, it is to say we will be willing
to go fast and make mistakes," says Mr. Aristide.

Members of a broad coalition of opposition business leaders,
politicians and representatives of civil society groups, have
criticized the violent now underway in Gonaives and elsewhere in
Haiti. Opposition leaders say some of the armed gangs now controlling
Gonaives are former Aristide allies who have turned on their former
patron.

Haiti's opposition charges that Mr. Aristide's government is guilty
of human rights abuses, corruption and mismanagement, and had done
nothing to alleviate Haiti's extreme poverty, charges Mr. Aristide
and his supporters strongly refute.

Opposition leaders have called on Mr. Aristide to step down, but on
Wednesday Haiti's President repeated that he has no intention of
leaving office before his term officially expires in February 2006.

http://www.voanews.com/article.cfm?objectID=73EB7979-922A-43B8-8529396B5CFB63BD

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