6704: Bombs Explode in Port-au-Prince (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: nozier <nozier@tradewind.net>

 January 19, 2001  Bombs Explode in Port-au-Prince ASSOCIATED PRESS

 PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) -- Four bombs  exploded around the capital
Friday, three weeks  before the inauguration of President-elect Jean
Bertrand Aristide. Two of the explosives went off in downtown
Port-au-Prince, Radio Kiskeya reported. One bomb  destroyed a truck and
seriously injured a man, Kiskeya said. There were no injuries in the
second blast, also downtown.  A third bomb exploded in a suburban
open-air market,  while another went off near a public high school on
the outskirts of the capital. One person was injured and  one was
arrested in connection with one of the     attacks, witnesses said.
Just weeks away from Aristide's Feb. 7 inauguration,tensions have been
building in the capital where an alliance of opposition groups are
planning to write a  platform for a national unity government that would
hold  quick general elections.
 All of Haiti's main opposition parties boycotted the  Nov. 26
presidential elections, claiming May local and  legislative elections
were rigged to give Aristide's  Lavalas Family party 80 percent of
seats. Aristide won with nearly 92 percent of the vote over six
little-known opponents.
 In a December letter to President Clinton, Aristide offered to rectify
the election results and include opposition figures in his government.
The opposition rejected the offers.
 The impasse led to threats of violence from Aristide supporters who
threatened to kill opposition members being considered for an
alternative government.Grouped in a 15-party alliance called
Convergence,the opposition will hold a national convention next   week.
Delegates will select the members of an  alternative government and
write the guiding lines of  its program.