19420: (Hermantin) Miami-Herald-Protesters: Aristide must go (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: leonie hermantin <lhermantin@hotmail.com>


FORT LAUDERDALE DEMONSTRATION


Protesters: Aristide must go

By SARA OLKON

solkon@herald.com


Dissent was tinged with cautious optimism as hundreds of protesters called
for the immediate resignation of Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide
outside the Federal Courthouse in Fort Lauderdale Friday night.

''All this must stop!'' shouted Paul Blot, 52, a native of Cap-Hatien now
living in Miami.

They chanted, Abas Aristide! Allez Aristide! or ``Down with Aristide, Go!''

The jovial, swelling crowd danced and waved Haitian flags, perhaps a little
quicker than usual, to ward off the chill of the evening. Throughout the
two-hour gathering, protesters remained confined to the sidewalk in front of
the courthouse steps. Three Fort Lauderdale police sedans blocked off part
of the westbound lane of Broward Boulevard and kept the crowd, 700-strong,
from filing into the street.

Still, the mood was mostly light. A throng took to a conga line and sang, Ce
n'est que nos revoirs, a farewell song to the tune of Auld Lang Syne.

A little girl with a pink barrette in her hand held a tiny placard showing
Aristide's face marked by a pair of devil horns. She smiled.

Passing motorists honked their horns in support.

Some critics of Aristide remained cautious.

''Some people think it's over, but it's not official yet,'' cautioned Lesly
Jacques, a member of The Coalition for Justice and Democracy in Haiti, which
organized the demonstration.

Haitians who fled the island compared stories, of kidnappings and brutality.
Dr. Winnie Robin, a pediatrician, showed a reporter what she said were
bullet marks on her cheek and arm -- remnants of what she described as an
encounter with militant Aristide supporters called chimres, after a mythical
dragon.

''What's his choice?'' said Carmel Moise, who fled Haiti in 2000. She said
Haitian National Police officers tied her up, pistol-whipped her and burned
her skin with a hot iron.

``We trusted him. He betrayed us.''

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