18665: (Chamberlain) Aristide foes, supporters hurl rocks in Haiti protest (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

     By Michael Christie

    PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti, Feb 15 (Reuters)- The Haitian political
opposition's first march since an armed revolt erupted 10 days ago
disintegrated on Sunday when students exchanged volleys of rocks with
supporters of embattled President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.
     Police drove the demonstrators away with tear gas and shots into the
air and soon after the student protesters left, the streets in that part of
the capital filled with supporters of the president shouting "Aristide for
life."
     Nobody appeared to have been hurt in the confrontation.
     About 1,000 people calling for Aristide to resign had joined the march
in Port-au-Prince, far fewer than the opposition had hoped for and also far
fewer than had taken part in a wave of anti-Aristide demonstrations in
recent months.
     The revolt broke out when an armed gang that formerly supported
Aristide took over the western port city of Gonaives on Feb. 5, and it has
piled pressure on the president.
     The once widely popular former parish priest, who is halfway through
his second term and says he intends to stay the course to 2006, was already
under fire from political opponents accusing him of trampling on civil
rights and failing to ease chronic poverty afflicting much of Haiti's
population of 8 million.
     Up to 50 people have been killed in the revolt, which appears to have
reached an uneasy stalemate, with the rebels controlling Gonaives and
several other towns, but the government and its supporters preventing
further spread.
     Opposition leaders, who called Sunday's march after Aristide loyalists
thwarted a planned demonstration on Thursday, said people were scared to
venture out on Sunday because they feared intimidation from youth gangs
they say are armed by the government.
     "When someone comes to the march he is literally putting his life in
danger," Charles Baker, a leader of the Group of 184 opposition coalition,
told Reuters.
     Critics of Aristide have long condemned what they say is his use of
armed gangs to intimidate political opponents.
     The rally began with only about 150 people in the affluent district of
Petionville, on a hilltop above the sprawling capital of 2 million people.
     But when about 50 police equipped with riot helmets and gas masks
arrived to accompany the march, several hundred more people poured out of
houses and side streets to join the protest, apparently reassured the march
would be protected.
     "We people in Haiti died in 1804 to get this country free and if we
have to die in 2004 to be free from Aristide we are going to be free," said
one protester, Jacques Robert, 53, referring to the bloody struggle that
led to Haiti's independence from France 200 years ago.
     The demonstration began to go wrong after a couple of hours when about
half the marchers ignored police requests to divert around a poor
neighborhood where trouble has often erupted in past demonstrations.
     Breaking away from the political leaders of the opposition, students
charged down a main street and quickly began throwing rocks at what they
said were supporters of the ruling Lavalas Family Party waiting for them
with guns.
     Volleys of rocks were exchanged and the occasional gunshot was heard.
     Police, firing into the air, entered the slum area where the Lavalas
supporters were, but came back out without having arrested anyone. A
confrontation broke out between police and students and police used tear
gas and shot into the air to scatter the demonstrators.