22430: (Chamberlain) Thousands of Haitians rally for Aristide's return (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

     By Joseph Guyler Delva

     PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti, June 18 (Reuters) - Partisans of exiled former
President Jean-Bertrand Aristide poured from Haiti's slums and demonstrated
peacefully in Port-au-Prince on Friday in support of the man they still
consider their elected leader.
     Under the watchful eye of several dozen U.S. Marines and Haitian riot
police, more than 5,000 Aristide supporters accused the Bush administration
of kidnapping Aristide and called on Washington to return him to Haiti.
     Aristide has said repeatedly that he was abducted at gunpoint by U.S.
security agents and forced to board a plane to the Central African Republic
against his will on Feb. 29, charges that the United States has denied. The
Bush administration has said Aristide resigned voluntarily as rebels
approached Haiti's capital.
     Aristide, who was accused by his opponents of human rights abuses and
corruption, is exiled in South Africa.
     "If they want to kill all of us that's OK, but we will not rest until
Aristide is back," said Lesly Gustave, one of the march organizers.
     Demonstrators exchanged insults with U.S. Marines serving as
peacekeepers in Haiti and urged them to leave.
     "Go home, you sissy boy," an Aristide supporter called a U.S. marine.
     "No, you are a sissy boy," the marine replied.
     The marchers neared the National Palace, cursing the U.S.-backed
government led by interim Prime Minister Gerard Latortue. They have accused
him of arbitrarily arresting members of Aristide's Lavalas Family political
party, which the government denies.
     "They continue to arrest us, to kill us, to fire us, as if we did not
have a right to life as everybody else," said Maxime Morin, a resident of
the slum of Bel-Air, a stronghold of Aristide supporters.
     Several thousand Lavalas partisans have been fired from public
administration jobs in the last few months, including nearly 3,000 phone
company workers and more than 600 police, the demonstrators said.
     They denounced Latortue's decision to let at least 300 former military
leaders and former rebels serve in the police force, after background
checks were done. Haiti's army ousted Aristide in a 1991 coup and he
disbanded the military after returning to office in 1994.
     "We cannot expect them to protect us," said Lavalas supporter Jamil
Jean-Pierre, 31, a resident of Cite Soleil.
     Aristide supporters promised to boycott elections that are expected in
2005 unless Aristide returns before then.