20015: (Chamberlain) Four killed in anti-Aristide march (later story) (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 sprayed gunfire into a
crowd of thousands of jubilant revelers outside the National Palace on
Sunday, killing at least four people and wounding 19.
     Hospital officials said the dead included Spaniard Ricardo Ortega, a
correspondent for the Antena 3 Spanish television station. A Reuters
cameraman said at least four other journalists were wounded, including
American Michael Laughlin of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel. A spokesman
for the paper said he was shot in face and shoulder.
     Eyewitnesses said gunmen linked to Aristide's Lavalas movement fired
from rooftops and burst into the capital's main square in a pickup truck, a
jeep and on foot, shooting into a festive crowd celebrating the fall of the
president.
     "A whole group from Lavalas came down the Champs de Mars firing in
every direction," said Ingrid Arnesen, a CNN producer who witnessed the
attack. "Heavy machine gun fire."
     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.
     "It was a massacre," said Haitian National Police chief Leonce
Charles, who was appointed to the job last week.
     The shootings, which witnesses said came from pro-Aristide
neighborhoods, shattered 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. More
than 200 people have been killed in the month-long rebellion.
     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 Sunday's 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.
     Witnesses said the gunfire erupted from street level and from the tops
of buildings surrounding the square and many blamed Aristide's most
militant and ruthless supporters, known as the "chimeres."
     "I saw about a hundred chimeres a couple of blocks from Champs de
Mars," said Thierry David Henry, a university student attending the rally.
"They were shooting down at the crowd from the buildings."
     "I was driving in my car past Champs de Mars when I saw two people
shot dead and fell in front of my car," said witness Nadia Paul. "The
shooting was coming from a drive-by car."
     In the wake of the shootings, the body of a man in a blue shirt lay in
the Champs de Mars in front of an unfinished monument started by Aristide
to celebrate the 200th anniversary of Haiti's independence from France.
     U.S. Marines rushed through the streets in tank-like Light Armored
Vehicles and pointed rifles at rooftops. Wailing relatives and friends
packed the Canape Vert hospital where most of the wounded were taken.
     The shooting spree brought immediate pleas from Aristide's political
opponents for international forces to disarm the chimeres.
     The U.S., French, Chilean and Canadian forces in Haiti, which number
about 2,300, had been on high alert on Sunday, expecting rival
demonstrations. But until the shooting, Aristide's supporters had not
materialized in the streets.
     "Why are they there if they are not going to protect the people?"
opposition leader Marie Denise Claude said. "The international community
must disarm the thugs."
     A U.S. military official said the Marines were not fired upon and did
not fire any shots.
     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.
     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.
     A 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 and Eliana Aponte)