27453: (news) Chamberlain: Security fears grow as Haiti election nears (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

     By Joseph Guyler Delva

     PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti, Feb 3 (Reuters) - Haiti closed its schools on
Friday and the presidential front-runner canceled a campaign rally amid
heightened security concerns ahead of the chaotic Caribbean nation's
election on Tuesday.
     Former President Rene Preval, who leads opinion polls, said threats
forced him to call off a campaign-ending event in front of the National
Palace on Saturday as the impoverished country edged uneasily toward its
first election since Jean-Bertrand Aristide was ousted by a bloody
rebellion two years ago.
     "We found out about rumors about people who do not want the elections
to happen and were planning to attack the rally," Preval told Reuters
television in an interview. "In order to protect the electoral process we
decided to cancel the rally.
     A Preval campaign official, Rene Momplaisir, earlier said he had
credible information of a plan to attack Preval supporters and "make
bloodshed."
     A 9,000-strong U.N. peacekeeping force sent in after Aristide's ouster
patrols Haiti's streets to provide security. The foreign troops come under
fire almost daily in Cite Soleil, a teeming slum in the capital
Port-au-Prince where election officials decided not to set up voting
centers because of the danger.
     In recent days U.N. officials have told the 3.5 million voters they
will be protected at polling stations. President Boniface Alexandre was to
urge a violence-free election in a nationally televised address later on
Friday.
     But the humanitarian group Oxfam warned that many Haitians were afraid
to vote because of political and gang violence that has gripped the nation
of 8.5 million people. Hundreds have been killed since Aristide fled on
Feb. 29, 2004, and nearly 2,000 people have been kidnapped for ransom in
the last year.
     "People feel completely abandoned. They don't have confidence that
someone is there to protect them when they vote," said Yolette Etienne, an
Oxfam official in Port-au-Prince.
     Schools were set to remain closed for a week and public administration
buildings will be locked from Monday to Wednesday. Campaigning was to end
on Sunday.
     Preval, an agronomist who served as president from 1996 to 2001, has
done little public campaigning. A one-time protege of Aristide, he has
distanced himself from the exiled former priest, who was accused of
despotism and corruption in his later years in power.
     But Preval, who held a comfortable poll lead over industrialist
Charles Baker, appeared to have won support from many of Aristide's Lavalas
Family loyalists from the slums. He is opposed by Haiti's business elite
who pressed for Aristide's ouster two years ago.
     "They want to start violence to prevent Preval from being elected but
we are not going to play their game," Momplaisir said.
     Oxfam said an estimated 210,000 guns now in circulation in Haiti and
the long distances many voters will have to travel to the 800 voting
centers across the country were likely to discourage people from casting
ballots.
    Elections officials urged Haitians to get out and vote, despite the
long journeys.
     "I know we are asking you to make a great sacrifice because you are
going to have to walk far to get to voting centers. But make the effort.
Walk to the places wherever they are, for your country and for yourself,"
said Pauris Jean-Baptiste, a member of the electoral council.
     Despite the security concerns, the crowded capital, awash in colorful
campaign signs and graffiti, has been relatively quiet in recent days, with
no high-profile kidnappings.

  (Additional reporting by Jim Loney and Carlos Valdez in Port-au-Prince)




 REUTERS