23363: (Chamberlain) Gunfire in La Saline slum (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

   By STEVENSON JACOBS

   PORT-AU-PRINCE, Oct 3 (AP) -- Gunfire erupted in a slum teeming with
loyalists of ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide on Sunday, sending
people scattering through trash-strewn streets following days of political
clashes that have left at least 14 dead.
   Residents said men fired into the air, stole food from market vendors
and burned tires in the streets in the slum of La Saline.
   The unrest came a day after police arrested Haiti's Senate president and
two other pro-Aristide politicians following a six-hour standoff in a radio
station. Justice Minister Bernard Gousse told reporters the three were
suspected of being "intellectual authors" of the violence that erupted
Thursday during demonstrations demanding Aristide's return.
   The politicians, who insisted they were innocent, were led out in
handcuffs from the offices of Radio Caraibes Saturday night after a judge
entered to negotiate their surrender.
   Gousse said police found in one of their cars an Uzi submachine gun and
a T65 assault rifle, which are illegal in Haiti. "They're people who are
barbaric and violent," he told reporters.
   Pro-Aristide groups criticized the arrests, saying police didn't have a
warrant and had planted the weapons.
   Heavy gunfire rang out Saturday night and Sunday in parts of
Port-au-Prince. No one was reported killed, but streets remained blocked
with overturned wooden market stalls in some areas.
   Tensions have erupted as the impoverished country struggles to recover
from floods unleashed two weeks ago by Tropical Storm Jeanne, which killed
more than 1,550 and left some 900 missing, most presumed dead.
   In the hard-hit northwestern city of Gonaives on Sunday, residents
brought in two emaciated men found semiconscious on the ground to a clinic
run by Argentine troops. Doctors said it appeared the two hadn't eaten in
several days and had psychological trauma -- one because he lost relatives
in the floods.
   The other, 40-year-old Jacques Agelus Faustin, was found collapsed under
a mango tree.
   "We all thought he was dead," said Soupon Jean-Paul, the friend who
found him. "I wasn't even looking for him at the time."
   U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson also visited
Gonaives on Sunday, meeting officials and stopping at the clinic, where
U.N. peacekeepers have treated hundreds of the wounded.
   "There's no question we have to figure out how to rebuild Gonaives,"
Thompson said, adding that would involve creating jobs through public works
projects.
   Last week, President Bush asked Congress for $50 million for storm-hit
Caribbean countries, with about half planned for Haiti. "Help is on the
way," Thompson said before getting on a helicopter to return to
Port-au-Prince.
   Workers using shovels have begun cleaning up contaminated dried mud that
cakes Gonaives' streets.
   Meanwhile, Port-au-Prince's General Hospital said it admitted two men
with gunshot wounds Sunday, including Augustin Peristil, 25, who said he
didn't see who shot him when gunfire erupted Saturday night in La Saline.
   Residents said at least five men were killed Friday by gunmen outside
the home of an anti-Aristide community leader in the slum Village de Dieu.
   Pro-Aristide groups say police and anti-Lavalas gangs also have opened
fire on Aristide supporters, killing several people.
   A 15-year-old boy was among two shot dead by police Friday during a
pro-Aristide march, according to the independent group Institute for
Justice and Democracy in Haiti.
   Others reported killed included one shot at another demonstration Friday
and two alleged pro-Aristide gangsters shot by police Thursday.
   The headless bodies of three policemen turned up Friday, police said.
They, along with a fourth policeman, were believed killed in clashes
Thursday, police said.
   Aristide, now in exile in South Africa, has accused U.S. agents of
ousting him on Feb. 29 amid a bloody rebellion -- a charge the U.S.
government denies.
   Aristide's Lavalas Family party on Thursday began three days of
commemoration of the 1991 coup that toppled Aristide's first government.
They demanded an end to "the occupation" and "the invasion" by foreign
troops -- referring to the U.S.-led force that followed Aristide's ouster
and the U.N. peacekeepers who have taken over since June.
   U.N. peacekeepers have been criticized for not doing more to control the
violence. U.N. officials say they are doing the best they can with 3,000
peacekeepers on the ground and some 750 of them tied up dealing with the
aftermath of floods in Gonaives.
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   Associated Press reporter Amy Bracken in Gonaives contributed to this
report.