a840: NYTimes.com Article: Gunmen Kill Lawmaker in Haiti (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: potteryrn@aol.com

Please post this news from today's NYT, when will the violence end?  thanks.


Gunmen Kill Lawmaker in Haiti

February 19, 2002

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS


PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) -- Gunmen on a motorcycle killed
a lawmaker from President Jean-Bertrand Aristide's party, a
government official said of the latest violence in Haiti.

Rep. Marc-Andre Dirogene, 36, was driving his pickup truck
in a traffic jam in Port-au-Prince when two men drove up on
a motorcycle and demanded Dirogene give them a ride,
presidential spokesman Jacques Maurice said Monday.

When Dirogene refused, one of them shot him twice in the
head.

The men made no attempt to steal anything, Maurice said.
Police confirmed his account of the shooting.

Dirogene's wife was beside him and his daughter was in the
back with two security guards.

Political tension has been high in Haiti since flawed local
and legislative races in 2000. More than 80 percent of them
were won by Aristide's party, and the opposition charged
they were rigged. Hundreds of millions of foreign aid
dollars have been put on hold until both sides negotiate
new elections.

On Dec. 17, gunmen raided the National Palace and held it
for seven hours before fleeing. No officials were injured,
but 10 people were killed in the attack and subsequent
violence.

Aristide said the attack was an attempt to overthrow his
government, but the opposition charges it was a staged
event designed to repress dissent.