a1956: UPDATE 1-Gunmen fire at Haitian senator, kill bodyguard (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

     PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti, May 7 (Reuters) - Gunmen opened fire on Tuesday
on a Haitian senator trying to settle a political dispute in a southern
town, missing him but killing his bodyguard, the senator and other
witnesses said.
     Prince Pierre Sonson, a member of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide's
ruling Lavalas Family party, was fired upon as he got out of his car, the
witnesses said.
     His entourage returned fire and a bodyguard, Robert Belmur, was shot
in the head. Belmur died a few hours later at a hospital, hospital
officials said.
     The unidentified gunmen escaped and police said no arrests had been
made.
     "This is very serious," Sonson said. "I think that this was an attempt
to assassinate me."
     Haiti has struggled to establish a competent police force, a
functioning judiciary and stable democratic institutions since turning to
democracy 12 years ago following decades of dictatorship and military rule.
     Aristide, who became Haiti's first freely elected leader in 1991, was
elected to a second term in November 2000 but has been locked in a tense
political fight with opposition parties over tainted May 2000 parliamentary
elections.
     Sonson, an influential figure in Aristide's party, had traveled to
Cayes Jacmel, about 25 miles (40 km) south of the capital, to negotiate an
end to a local political disagreement. He declined to say who he thought
was behind the attack.
     He was among three senators who requested official security in
February after receiving death threats in the wake of a tumultuous Senate
session where they urged the government to lift the parliamentary immunity
of one of their colleagues, Sen. Dany Toussaint.
     Toussaint, a former security chief for Aristide, has been a central
figure in the investigation of the April 2000 murder of Haiti's most
prominent radio journalist, Jean Dominique.