29183: (news) Chamberlain: Powerful ex-colonel shot dead (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

   PORT-AU-PRINCE, Sept 15 (AP) -- A former army commander twice accused of
plotting to overthrow Haiti's government was shot to death in an upscale
suburb of the capital, police said Friday.
   Ex-Col. Guy Francois was killed Thursday night, said judiciary police
chief Michael Lucius. Police have no motive or suspects in the killing.
   Francois's body was found slumped behind the wheel of his car in
Petionville, a wealthy neighborhood in the hills overlooking
Port-au-Prince, radio Kiskeya reported.
   Francois, who is the brother of Dr. M. Rony Francois, Florida's health
secretary, was accused of helping plot a December 2001 attack that then
President Jean-Bertrand Aristide said was an attempted coup. Francois spent
two years in prison for his alleged role despite maintaining his innocence.
   In 1989, Francois, then commander of the feared Dessalines Battalion in
Port-au-Prince, was accused of conspiring with other officers in a failed
attempt to topple dictator Lt. Gen. Prosper Avril. After the plot was
foiled, Francois fled to Venezuela and returned to Haiti some time after.
   Separately, the U.S. announced a $492 million aid package aimed at
putting Haiti on a path to stability and lifting its stagnant economy.
   The funds, to be disbursed over three years, will address Haiti's
"enormous economic challenges" by creating jobs, increasing access to
health care and education and fighting HIV/AIDS, said U.S. Ambassador Janet
A. Sanderson.
   Haiti, the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, is struggling to
recover from a bloody 2004 rebel uprising that toppled then-President
Jean-Bertrand Aristide and pushed the country deeper into despair.