24904: (news) Chamberlain: Haiti-Violence (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

   PORT-AU-PRINCE, April 27 (AP) -- A demonstration aimed at winning the
release of jailed government opponents erupted in gunfire Wednesday,
leaving five people dead, U.N. officials and witnesses said.
   Witnesses blamed the killings on Haitian police, saying they arrived as
the demonstrators near the headquarters of the U.N. peacekeeping mission in
the capital of Port-au-Prince and fired shots to disperse the crowd.
   U.N. mission spokesman Damian Onses-Cardona confirmed that police opened
fire on demonstrators but had no further information. He said U.N.
peacekeepers were not present.
   U.N. civilian police spokesman Dan Moskaluk said peacekeepers were
called to the scene after the shooting and found five bodies. He said he
had no other information, though he called the march an "unauthorized,
illegal demonstration."
   Officials at the Port-au-Prince morgue said the bodies of five young men
had been brought in from the march.
   Haitian police could not be reached for comment.
   The incident marked the third time in three months that Haitian police
have fatally opened fire on demonstrators in Port-au-Prince.
   Haiti has been hit with periodic street protests and violence since a
three-week rebellion late year ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.
U.N. peacekeepers have moved aggressively in recent weeks against pro- and
anti-Aristide street gangs. The United States has warned that both street
gangs and the ex-soldiers were trying to destabilize the interim
government.