24428: Hermantin( News)Two killed as police fire on Port-au-Prince rally (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: leonie hermantin <lhermantin@hotmail.com>


Posted on Tue, Mar. 01, 2005


HAITI
Two killed as police fire on Port-au-Prince rally
With U.N. peacekeeping troops present, Haitian police attacked a
pro-Aristide march with gunfire, killing two people.
BY JOE MOZINGO
jmozingo@herald.com

PORT-AU-PRINCE - Haitian police opened fire on peaceful protesters Monday,
killing two, wounding others and scattering an estimated 2,000 people
marching through the capital to mark the first anniversary of President
Jean-Bertrand Aristide's ouster.

The late-morning disturbance, witnessed by U.N. peacekeepers and foreign
journalists alike, lends critics of the new government a powerful piece of
evidence to back their allegations that police are persecuting Aristide
supporters.

''I am not aware of any shots [fired] at the police,'' said Brazilian Navy
Cmdr. Carlos Chagas Braga, second in command of the peacekeepers.
``Everything was going peacefully. . . . We don't know why they came to
disband the demonstration.''

CAUGHT IN MIDDLE

Peacekeepers, whose orders are to support the police, stood by as the attack
occurred. The police quickly disappeared, leaving the bodies on the street.

''When things like this happen we are in a bad situation,'' Chagas added.
``We are supposed to support the Haitian National Police. We cannot fire at
them.''

The march began an hour or so earlier in the twisting, trash-filled
alleyways of the capital's Bel Air slum, where hundreds of blue-helmeted
peacekeepers had taken positions on street corners and on roofs.

A group of mostly young men ran through the neighborhood, screaming against
Haiti's U.S.-backed government and the Bush administration and chanting
pro-Aristide slogans. Some drank clear cane liquor and burned small wooden
Vodou sacrifices on the broken pavement. As it moved toward downtown, the
crowd gained energy and size. Peacekeepers followed close behind.

''Arrest all of us!'' one woman shouted. ''Aristide or death!'' others said.

Many complained of police abuse and accused the United Nations of
complicity. One man showed bullet wounds on his back and arm. Another said
police officers had killed 14 residents three days before.

''They never come by themselves, they always hide behind the U.N. and shoot
people on the side,'' said Patrick Charles, 32.

U.N. officials had tried to keep Haitian police from interfering with the
protest -- or even showing up in the neighborhood, a U.N. source said.

POLICE ACTED ANYWAY

But the advice went unheeded. At least two pickup trucks full of armed,
black-clad Haitian police circled through the area with weapons trained on
the protesters.

Shortly after 11 a.m., one of the trucks blocked the protesters' route as
they headed toward the National Palace. ''We are under big repression,''
said George Brutus, a one-time resident of Texas as he ran to join the
raucous crowd. ``In this country there are death squads.''

Within minutes, sharp cracks of tear gas canisters and automatic gunfire
resonated through the area. Residents and protesters ran as the shooting
continued for up to a minute.

A block away, a group of peacekeepers didn't move as the chaos unfolded
within their sight.

When the smoke cleared, a young merchant lay dead on the street, shot in the
head, still clasping a leather cellphone cover. Another victim, apparently
shot in the chest, was immediately taken away by residents, witnesses said.

Peacekeepers on the scene, looking confused, tried to keep people away from
the corpse. The victim had sold cassette tapes on the street. A female
relative screamed at the sight and whirled around in aimless agony.

''They've got a contract to kill everyone in Bel Air,'' she sobbed to a
friend.

The sting of tear gas hung in the air.

Father Gerard Jean Juste, a Lavalas activist in Miami and Haiti, was in the
middle of the crowd with an American lawyer when the shots rang out.

''I have one of my guys wounded,'' he said after the gunfire, referring to a
parishioner shot in the shoulder. ``I heard of many others wounded.''

Juste said no one returned fire, although gangs in the neighborhood are
heavily armed. He has been alleging the summary executions of Aristide
supporters in the slum for months. ''This time, it happened right in front
of me,'' he said.