18517: (Chamberlain) Aristide opponents forced to cancel planned rally (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

     By Michael Christie

    PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti, Feb 12 (Reuters) - Militant supporters of
Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide poured into the streets and threw
up barricades on Thursday to prevent the opposition's first big political
rally since an armed revolt erupted a week ago.
     Aristide supporters blocked all roads to the main plaza in the
capital, Port-au-Prince, where the rally was due to be held, manning
barricades of broken furniture, burned out cars and scrap metal.
     Andre Apaid, leader of an opposition coalition called the Group of
184, said just before the rally was due to start that it had to be called
off.
     "They're occupying the plaza and people are going to get hurt," Apaid
told Reuters.
     Crowds of ruling Lavalas Party supporters turned back vehicles trying
to get past barricades. Some militants had pistols in their waistbands.
     Some in the crowd shouted "Five years," the Lavalas rallying cry for
Aristide to serve out his term to 2006.
     Others chanted "Down with the terrorists," the government's term for
the armed gangs who have taken over the city of Gonaives and half a dozen
other towns in an insurgency that has killed more than 40 people so far.
Aristide's political opponents have condemned the gangs but they share a
common aim of seeking the president's departure.
     The planned rally had been seen as a test of support for the political
opposition and of the government's willingness to tolerate dissent at a
time of serious threat to Aristide's authority.
     Opposition leaders had said tens of thousands of supporters would
march to show solidarity with the armed groups.
     "It will be a huge march because of the situation of violence created
by the Aristide regime," said Evans Paul, a leading member of the
opposition Democratic Convergence, before it was called off.
     The opposition, which has held regular anti-government marches in the
past months that have often been met with violence by government loyalists,
has condemned the bloodshed in the Caribbean nation of 8 million.
     At the same time, it said Aristide was to blame for arming street
thugs and fueling political tensions through violence since parliamentary
elections in 2000 were declared flawed.
     Aristide's once overwhelming popularity has faded as deep-seated
poverty kept the majority of Haitians in its grip. Per capita income here
is $400 annually.
     The armed revolt broke out last Thursday in Gonaives -- birthplace of
Haitian independence from France in 1804 -- when former backers of Aristide
drove out police.
     Critics say Aristide armed the gang, previously known as the Cannibal
Army, with the weapons it has turned on him.
     The government denies any connection, and says the gunmen represent
the military arm of political foes trying to stage a coup against Haiti's
first democratically elected leader.
     The revolt spread to more than half a dozen towns, but appears to have
reached an uneasy stalemate after armed militia backing the president
joined the police in fighting back, burning down opponents' homes, and
killing rebels.
     In Port-au-Prince on Thursday, a 50-year-old mechanic who gave his
name only as Amos said he was not a Lavalas supporter but joined the crowd
to oppose the planned protest.
     "Why should there be a march? Aristide was elected for five years," he
said.
     Amos said that while conditions for him and his family of seven
children had not improved under Aristide, the country had a constitution
that had to be respected by all.
     "Democracy hangs in the balance" he said.