5884: Seven Bombs Explode in Haiti (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: nozier@tradewind.net

Wednesday November 22 2:13 PM ET
Seven Bombs Explode in Haiti 
By MICHAEL NORTON, Associated Press Writer 

 PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) - Seven bombs exploded around Haiti's
capital Wednesday, killing a teen-age boy and injuring 14 people in an
upsurge of violence before this weekend's presidential election.
 Clairvil Robinson, 14, was killed on a busy downtown street when a bomb
exploded next to him. Another bomb went off downtown, two exploded on
the highway to the international airport and three exploded in the
suburb of Petitionville, police and radio reports said.Shopkeepers in
the capital, Port-Au-Prince, closed their stores in panic. Supporters of
former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, expected to win re-election in
Sunday's vote, set up flaming tire barricades to protest the pre-vote
violence. Protesters carried Robinson's blood-soaked body on a march
past the National Palace to the local morgue.The attacks were the latest
in a series that have darkened the weeks preceding the Sunday election
in  which Aristide and six little-known opponents are running for the
presidency.  Main opposition parties have boycotted the race, charging
that local and legislative elections earlier this  year were rigged by
the government in favor of Aristide's Lavalas Family party, which won
more than 80 percent of the seats. Aristide's Lavalas Family party and
opposition spokesmen have accused each other of being responsible for
the recent surge of violence. On Nov. 10, unidentified suspects lobbed
homemade gasoline bombs in front of four electoral council buildings in
greater Port-au-Prince, causing little damage and no injuries.
  On Nov. 2, self-proclaimed Lavalas Family partisans in Hinche, 45
miles outside the capital, opened fire on a meeting of the Papaye
Peasants' Movement, the biggest rural workers' organization in Haiti.
They  wounded the brother of an outspoken Aristide critic.