27715: (news) Chamberlain: Haiti-Elections (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

   By STEVENSON JACOBS

   PORT-AU-PRINCE, Feb 13 (AP) -- Gunfire erupted Monday during protests
over election results in Haiti and at least one supporter of leading
presidential candidate Rene Preval was killed. Witnesses said U.N.
peacekeepers opened fire on the crowd, but a U.N. spokesman denied that.
   Witnesses said Jordanian U.N. peacekeepers opened fire on them, killing
two and wounding four.
   David Wimhurst, a U.N. spokesman in Haiti, denied in a phone interview
that peacekeepers opened fire.
   Associated Press journalists saw the body of a man in the street in the
Tabarre neighborhood. He was wearing a blood-soaked T-shirt bearing an
image of Preval. The body of the second victim was not at the scene.
   "We were peacefully protesting when the U.N. started shooting. There
were a lot of shots. Everybody ran," said Walrick Michel, 22, one of the
pro-Preval protesters.
   Hundreds of screaming demonstrators elsewhere stormed into an upscale
hotel housing an electoral office in the hills above Port-au-Prince and
helicopters landed on the roof to evacuate guests.
   Protesters have alleged the electoral commission is manipulating the
vote count to prevent leading candidate and Preval, a one-time protege of
ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, from winning a first-round victory
in this battered and poor Caribbean nation.
   No violence was reported at the Montana hotel, where election officials
have announced results of Tuesday's presidential and parliamentary
elections.