20256: (Chamberlain) Two dead at Haiti protest as weapons ... (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

     By Michael Christie and Ibon Villelabeitia

     PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti, March 11 (Reuters) - Gunfire broke out in
Port-au-Prince on Thursday killing two people and injuring six others after
police broke up a rowdy demonstration calling for the return of ousted
Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.
     The shooting erupted inside one of the capital's slums as protesters
scattered, some smashing shop and car windows, after police used tear gas
to disperse a crowd of several thousand Aristide loyalists.
     Morgue workers at the city's General Hospital said two bullet-riddled
bodies were brought in after the unrest near the National Palace, the
latest volatility in the impoverished Caribbean country. The workers said
they had been killed by police but this could not be independently
confirmed.
     Six people were treated in the emergency ward for bullet wounds. Two
of them, a middle-aged man cradling a shattered arm, and a market woman hit
twice in the upper torso, said they had been shot by police.
     Aristide went into exile in Africa on Feb. 29, driven out by a
month-long armed revolt and by U.S. pressure to quit. More than 200 people
have been killed in the violence.
     A champion of the poor who became Haiti's first elected leader in 1991
after helping to end the decades-long rule of the Duvaliers, Aristide had
faced growing accusations of corruption and despotism since flawed
elections in 2000.
     He has alleged from exile in the Central African Republic that the
United States staged a coup and forced his resignation. Washington denied
those claims.
     But Aristide's charges have inflamed the passions of his supporters.
     In a development that could further stir discontent, Aristide was
expected to visit Haiti's Caribbean neighbor Jamaica soon, a Jamaican
official said.
     Rebels who helped force Aristide out promised again on Thursday to lay
down their guns and U.S. Marines said a pledge by Washington to get tough
on arms had been put into action.
     Haitian police and U.S. and French troops from the 2,500-strong
multinational force searched a suspected weapons site early on Thursday in
a show of military strength.
     "The end result was we found no weapons," said U.S. commander, Marine
Col. Mark Gurganus.
     "The bottom line is there's going to be a lot of dry holes in these
types of operations but that's okay. The message out of this is that we're
looking and we're out to help reduce the number of weapons on the street."
     French gendarmes and legionnaires secured a defensive perimeter around
the Port-au-Prince neighborhood of Haut-Turgeau, while Marines and police
entered a house. A helicopter hovered overhead and passersby were shooed
away.
     There was no shooting. Marines have killed four people since Sunday as
they faced escalating attacks and rooftop ambushes by suspected
pro-Aristide gunmen.
     In Thursday's protest, which began in the Belair slum, police used
warnings on megaphones then tear gas to break up the crowd.
     People fled back toward Belair. Some broke windows and set fire to
tires and garbage, while militants brought out their guns and fired at
police.
     The crowd emerged earlier from Belair singing and beating drums,
blowing horns and chanting, "We want Aristide back," and "No Aristide, no
peace."
     While they marched, interim Prime Minister Gerard Latortue, who flew
into Haiti on Wednesday from Florida, was meeting at the National Palace
with President Boniface Alexandre to begin work on drawing up a Cabinet.
     Latortue arrived promising to unite Haiti's deeply divided 8 million
people, attack insecurity, disarm the population and create jobs in a
country where the vast majority scrape out a subsistence living from
barren, eroded soil.
     Rebel chief Guy Philippe told Reuters he had told his supporters to
pursue peaceful methods to achieve their goals of inclusion in a new
government, and re-establishment of an army, disbanded by Aristide a decade
ago after it staged a coup.
     Asked if that meant his forces would hand over weapons to the Marines,
he said: "I've always said the president is our commander in chief. We do
what he tells us."
     The rebels had already vowed to disarm after Aristide left. Their
revolt was launched on Feb. 5 in the northwestern city of Gonaives and then
rolled through the north after being joined by ex-soldiers and death squad
leaders.
     But when a celebratory anti-Aristide rally was attacked on Sunday, and
six people died, Philippe withdrew the pledge.

  (Additional reporting by Joseph Guyler Delva in Port-au-Prince, and
Horace Helps in Kingston)