24590: (news) Chamberlain: Effigy of PM burned

[sak-pase@bimini.ws]

Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>


Pro-Aristide protesters burn effigy of Haiti's interim leader
By Stevenson Jacobs 

PORT-AU-PRINCE, March 29 (AP) - Protesters demanding the return of ousted
president Jean-Bertrand Aristide burned an effigy of Haiti's interim leader
Tuesday and shouted insults at United Nations peacekeepers who blocked
marchers from reaching the national palace. 
       Chanting "No Aristide, no peace," several thousand flag-waving
demonstrators flooded the slum of Bel-Air, waving photos of their fallen
leader. 
       Protesters cheered as a man doused a life-size effigy of interim
Prime Minister Gerard Latortue with gasoline and set it ablaze outside a
church. 
       "There can be no negotiation. Latortue must leave now!" shouted
Elysee Mondestin, 29. "We are ready to take up arms to bring back president
Aristide." 
       The protest was called to mark the anniversary of the ratification
of Haiti's 1987 constitution, which was written after a popular uprising
ended the 29-year dictatorship of Jean-Claude Duvalier. 
       In a letter marking the event, Aristide's private office reiterated
the exiled leader's charge that he was removed from power in a coup. 
       The letter claimed more than 10,000 people have been killed in
Haiti since Aristide fled the country amid a February 2004 rebellion. 
       Pierre Esperance, director of National Coalition for Haitian
Rights, said the figure is closer to between 1,000 and 1,500. Police also
have given much lower estimates. 
       "In a word, impunity is the law," the letter read. "A complicit
silence is maintained on the genocide in Haiti." 
       Protesters trying to march to the national palace found Brazilian
peacekeepers had set up razor-wire barricades on roads leading out of
Bel-Air. 
       The commander of the UN force, Lt.-Gen. Augusto Heleno Ribeiro,
said protesters hadn't received authorization to demonstrate outside the
palace, which lies a few blocks from Bel-Air. 
       "We told them they had to stay inside the community so (as) not to
provoke a confrontation with police," Heleno Ribeiro said after getting in
a shouting match with a protest organizer demanding marchers be let
through. 
       Peacekeepers whisked the commander away before lining up in
crowd-control formation. One soldier cocked his rifle, prompting more angry
shouts from marchers who burned a Brazilian soccer jersey. 
       "If these soldiers fire one bullet they better leave for Brazil the
next day!" another man shouted.