23341: Holmstead: Canadian Press-Yahoo (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: John Holmstead <cyberkismet5@yahoo.com>

Tension in Haiti mounts with shootout at demonstration
in Port-au-Prince

40 minutes ago

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) - Gunfire erupted as
Haitians calling for the return of ousted president
Jean-Bertrand Aristide marched near the Presidential
Palace on Thursday, wounding several people as
hundreds scattered to safety in side streets.



The violence came after armed rebels who toppled
Aristide in February challenged UN peacekeepers at the
entrance to the city of flood-ravaged Gonaives, in a
litmus test of a country where power appears to be up
for grabs.

Thursday's violence ratcheted up tension in the
country reeling from tropical storm Jeanne. Rescuers
have recovered more than 1,550 bodies in northwest
Haiti, most in the third-largest city of Gonaives, and
some 900 are missing, according to government
officials.

"It is highly probable that most of the missing are
dead," UN spokesman Toussaint Kongo-Doudou said
Thursday.

Several people were shot and wounded by the gunfire in
Port-au-Prince, he reported. One radio station
reported two police officers killed but there was no
immediate confirmation of any deaths.

UN troops determined that a gunfight ensued between
Aristide supporters and private security guards of
shops looted during the march, Kongo-Doudou said.

Supporters of Aristide, now in exile in South Africa,
were commemorating the 13th anniversary of his 1991
ouster by Haiti's army. They also used the occasion to
demand an end to "the occupation" and "the invasion"
by foreign troops, which began with U.S. marines
replaced by UN peacekeepers in June.

In Port-au-Prince, thousands of slum dwellers wound
through downtown streets, carrying photos of Aristide
and chanting "Like it or not, Aristide will return!"
Some covered their faces with cloths or bandanas.

About an hour into the march, demonstrators passed
through the plaza in front of the National Palace and
were a few blocks away when shots rang out repeatedly
and continued sporadically for 20 minutes.

Brazilian troops were in armoured vehicles nearby and
a UN helicopter circled overhead, Kongo-Doudou said.

The marchers also directed their criticism at the
United States, chanting "Down with Bush!"

Aristide has accused U.S. agents of kidnapping him
when he was flown out of the country on a
U.S.-chartered jet Feb. 29 under pressure from
Washington's demands he resign and its refusal to send
troops to his aid. The U.S. government insists
Aristide left of his own free will.

Gonaives' Cannibal Army street gang in February rose
up against Aristide's government, sparking a rebellion
quickly joined by soldiers from the former Haitian
army that Aristide disbanded in 1995. The rebels
overran half the country in three weeks, forcing
Aristide's departure.

U.S. troops arrived as he departed but did little to
disarm the rebels, who are demanding the reinstatement
of the army and have friendly relations with the
U.S.-installed interim government.

Rebels now have formed a political party which
Aristide supporters, including a vast majority of
Haiti's impoverished peasants and slum dwellers, say
is aimed at returning power in the country to the
hands of a lighter-skinned elite that has become
wealthy on the backs of Haiti's poor.

Aristide became Haiti's first freely elected president
in 1990, chosen for his fiery rhetoric as a slum
priest that fuelled a revolution and ended the 28-year
Duvalier family dictatorship. He was ousted within
months by the army, returned by a U.S. invasion in
1994, was forced to step down by U.S. pressure and a
constitutional clause forbidding two-term
presidencies, and was re-elected in 2000.

On Wednesday, scores of rebels came to Gonaives
bringing three truckloads of food and offering to help
with security, rebel leader Remissainthe Ravix said
Thursday. It appeared a challenge to the security
forces and the failure of the interim government to
respond to the calamity.

They were turned back by UN peacekeepers who said they
could only enter without their guns. Despite that,
some made it through, and one truckload of rebel food
aid was mobbed and the aid looted as the rebels
watched, French police officer Didier Leisigne said
Thursday.

UN peacekeepers had told the rebels that they could
enter the city but only without their guns.

"No foreigner has the right to tell us to put down our
arms," said Ravix, a former army colonel who returned
to Port-au-Prince after they were put off. "We went
there because wherever security is needed, we'll be
there."

Tropical storm Jeanne, empowered by massive
deforestation that has left Haiti's mountains and
rivers incapable of absorbing moisture, spewed walls
of water and mudslides loaded with rocks onto this
city two weeks ago. The aftermath has tied up more
than 700 of the 3,000 UN troops in Haiti, less than
half the 8,000 promised when the United Nations (news
- web sites) took over from U.S. marines in June.

The United Nations on Thursday launched an appeal for
$30 million US in emergency aid for Haiti following
the floods.






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