20010: (Chamberlain) Four killed in anti-Aristide march in Haiti (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

     By Ibon Villelabeitia and Joseph Guyler Delva

     PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti, March 7 (Reuters) - Suspected supporters of
exiled Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide opened fire on thousands of
jubilant revelers outside the National Palace on Sunday, killing at least
four people and wounding 19.
     A Reuters correspondent at the hospital said the dead included a
foreign cameraman who worked for the Antena 3 Spanish television station.
There were also unconfirmed eyewitness reports that four other foreign
journalists were wounded in the shooting.
     U.S. Marines in the impoverished Caribbean nation leading an
international peace mission roared to the scene in machine gun-mounted
Humvees as panicked demonstrators ran for cover and military helicopters
hovered over the palace.
     The shootings, which witnesses said came from pro-Aristide
neighborhoods, capped a largely peaceful demonstration in which thousands
took to the streets in a noisy parade to celebrate the fall of Aristide,
who fled to Africa on Feb. 29 following a bloody revolt.
     The march, closely watched by U.S. Marines, French troops and Haitian
National Police in riot gear, came two days after thousands of angry
supporters of Aristide burst out of slums and marched on the U.S. embassy
to protest the "U.S. occupation" and demand his return.
     In the march, revelers hoisted Guy Philippe, the leader of a ragtag
band of rebels who helped oust Aristide, on their shoulders, shouting
"Philippe, Philippe!" Another rebel commander, former death squad chief
Louis Jodel Chamblain, signed autographs.
     A council of elders is working to pick a prime minister to replace
Yvon Neptune, an Aristide ally who is expected to be pushed aside early
this week.
     Earlier, across town, looters hit an industrial area near the airport.
Two women were wounded by gunfire as police tried to halt the looting.
     Aristide, a former Roman Catholic priest who became a champion of
Haiti's impoverished masses when he helped overthrow the brutal Duvalier
family dictatorship in 1986, was ousted by a bloody revolt that killed more
than 200 people and by pressure from the United States and other foreign
nations.
     "Aristide criminal! Prison for Aristide!" the revelers chanted, waving
Haitian flags, singing, clapping, punching fists in the air and honking
horns.
     In pickup trucks, on bicycles and motorcycles and on foot, a crowd
estimated at more than 3,000 moved through the garbage-strewn streets of
Port-au-Prince, swaying to blaring music, worshiping the rebel leaders like
rock stars and hurling insults at the departed president.
     "We need democracy in Haiti. Aristide was a drug trafficker and his
regime violated human rights," said protester Harry Adeclat, a 38-year-old
doctor.
     From his exile in the Central African Republic, Aristide has claimed
he was kidnapped by U.S. forces, an allegation the U.S. government has
denied.
     "We don't want Aristide back," said Charles Baker, a leader of a
political opposition movement. "Aristide is gone but he is still leading
the government."
     Baker said foes of the ex-president were pushing for the quick
formation of a new government. A council of elders was choosing a prime
minister to replace Yvon Neptune, an Aristide ally who is expected to be
pushed aside early this week.
     Aristide's supporters stayed relatively quiet during the first
tumultuous days after he was flown out of Haiti, claiming they were being
hunted by rebel forces who swarmed into the capital in triumph.
     That ended on Friday when thousands poured out of the Port-au-Prince
slums of La Saline and Cite Soleil to march on the U.S. Embassy and the
palace, hurling slurs at U.S. Marines and calling U.S. President George W.
Bush a terrorist.
     The calls for competing demonstrations on Sunday raised concerns of a
renewal of the looting and killing that gripped Haiti before and after
Aristide's departure.
     Despite a pledge by Philippe to lay down arms, no weapons had been
turned in to the police or multinational forces, which numbered about 2,300
Americans, French, Chileans and Canadians by Sunday.
     The council of elders named to help form a new government broke from a
daylong meeting on Saturday without naming a prime minister, a task
expected to be completed this week.
     Among the top candidates are Smarck Michel, a businessman who served
as prime minister in 1994 and 1995 but ultimately broke with Aristide over
differences in economic policy, former Haitian army Gen. Herard Abraham,
former Foreign Minister Gerard Latortue and Axan Abellard of the Center for
Free Enterprise and Democracy.

  (Additional reporting by Amy Bracken)