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By Marc Lacey, The New York Times Nairobi, Kenya, Dec. 29 - In a vote widely hailed as a step forward for democracy in Africa, Kenyans have resoundingly defeated the party that has ruled over them for nearly four decades and selected the opposition leader Mwai Kibaki as their president, election officials said today - more.

AUGUS - An overcrowded private party at Caruso's Diplomat nightclub on Route 1 turned into a melee that resulted in no serious injuries but took 50 police officers about two hours to quell Saturday night.

One woman was arrested on an unrelated shoplifting warrant, and three police officers were treated at local hospitals for minor injuries.

Police said that cramped quarters inside the function hall may have been a factor in the brawl. They estimated that the size of the crowd ranged from 2,000 to 2,500 people.

''When you get that many people crammed into a space, it doesn't take much to set people off,'' said Saugus Police Lieutenant Steve Sweezui.

Police were first summoned at 11:30 p.m. to help with parking problems. ''Cars were parked everywhere,'' Sweezui said. ''There weren't enough lanes to get into the building.''

Then police received several calls from people inside the club reporting fights.

Caruso's Diplomat was so crowded that police officers had trouble getting in to investigate, they said.

Sweezui said that more fights followed when police announced that the party was to be shut down for the night.

''It was necessary to clear the building and necessary to request assistance from surrounding communities to help us disperse the crowd,'' Sweezui said.

By 1:30 a.m., police from Lynn, Malden, Wakefield, the Essex County Sheriff's Department, and the State Police had cleared the crowd.

Sweezui said police have not yet determined whether the party promoters or the owners will face charges. Saugus Police Chief Edward Felix will review reports of the incident before any action is taken.

This story ran on page B2 of the Boston Globe on 12/30/2002.
© Copyright 2002 Globe Newspaper Company. Wehaitians.com's notes: Today, our executive editor Prof. Yves A. Isidor was on Boston's Haitian radio magazine program Vwa Lakay urging victims to call We Haitians United We Stand For Democracy. The purpose of so was to inform the assumed large number of victims of his organization's intention to file a class action lawsuit against Jean Eddie Bazile, the so-called promoter or uncommonly crook of the Saturday night dance show, which wehaitians.com terms "organized grand thievery", rather. The ballroom could only accommodate a certain number of patrons, still an additional 2,000 tickets or so were sold, suggesting that the thievery organized by Bazile was "grand scale." Many of the would-be patrons were gassed and beaten by police. If you happen to be one of the victims of the Saturday night rare organized crime, please call us today at: 617-547-2220 or 617-233-4095. You can also send us an e-mail at: wehaitians.com. All we are waiting for to return to the Massachusetts Attorney General Office to commence the class action lawsuit is for you all to come forward. If you don't come forward because you are afraid of the alleged petty thief Bazil we will be forced to find another way to stop the concerned alleged criminal and many others from defrauding other Boston's Haitians.

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti, Dec. 27 - Police investigating the shooting death of a guard at a prominent journalist's home said Friday that they were trying to determine if the broadcaster was the target (the extremely sad faces of Montas).

The France-based group Reporters Without Borders said the Christmas Day attack appeared to be an attempt "to eliminate" journalist Michele Montas, calling the attack a "despicable and cowardly action."

Montas — the widow of radio station owner Jean Dominique, who was assassinated in 2000 — also said she believes the two gunmen were trying to kill her because of her demands for justice in her husband's killing. Since then, Montas has run the station and anchored the 7 a.m. daily newscast that they once led together.

Montas was at home with her elderly mother when the security guard was shot three times outside the house. But police said the attackers apparently didn't aim at the house.

"We are excluding no hypothesis," police spokesman Jean-Dady Simeon said. "We can't say as yet whether the killing was motivated by politics, theft or revenge."

Montas said the attack was linked to an anticipated indictment of her husband's killers. An investigating judge has promised an indictment by the end of the year. No one has been charged, and Montas has criticized the investigation's slowness.

Dominique, Haiti's most prominent journalist, once supported President Jean-Bertrand Aristide's party and was killed as he began to openly criticize the party. He was gunned down on April 3, 2000, at his station, Radio Haiti-Inter.

Press freedom groups have faulted the government for failing to bring Dominique's killers to justice. They have accused the government of tolerating attacks on the press — charges the government denies. Aristide and First Lady Mildred Aristide visited Montas to assure her the government is committed to advancing the investigation into Dominique's killing, a statement from Aristide's office said. "

If an indictment is due, it must be published to know who is guilty and who is innocent," Aristide said Thursday. "Without peace and justice we cannot transform this country."

Since mid-November, at least three people have been killed and 350 injured in clashes that erupted during anti-government protests. Aristide has blamed much of the recent violence on the opposition.

On Thursday, 184 civil society groups signed a declaration saying they won't support holding legislative elections, planned for next year, until the government guarantees security and freedom of speech.

Posted at 12:51 p.m., Friday, December 27, 2002 Severe economic difficulties are ravaging many U.S. states forcing also Michigan to drop minimum sentence rules for drug crimes

ANSING, Mich., Dec. 25 (AP) — Karen Shook was sentenced to 20 years in prison in 1993 for arranging a drug deal for a man who turned out to be an undercover police officer. But Ms. Shook, a former bank teller, could be paroled 10 years early under legislation expected to be signed by the governor in the next week to eliminate mandatory minimum sentences for drug crimes. Advertisement

Michigan is one of several states revising mandatory minimum sentences. Connecticut, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Missouri, New Jersey and North Carolina are also considering eliminating such rules, said Laura Sager, executive director of Families Against Mandatory Minimums, a Washington group.

Michigan Department of Corrections officials do not know how many of the state's 49,296 inmates could be eligible for parole under the legislation, which would take effect March 1. But supporters of the legislation said the state's skyrocketing prison population made the law necessary.

Critics of Michigan's mandatory minimum sentencing guidelines have pushed for changes for years, but economic difficulties may ultimately have led to their elimination.

The state, facing a $1.5 billion general fund deficit in the coming fiscal year, spends about $1.4 billion a year on its prison population, or an average of $28,000 for each inmate, said Russ Marlan, a spokesman for the Department of Corrections.

This month, as the Legislature struggled with the state budget, it approved eliminating mandatory sentences. The departing governor, John Engler, a Republican, supports the move.

Laurie Quick, Ms. Shook's sister, said her family did not know about the state's strict sentencing guidelines until Ms. Shook, now 49, was arrested.

"It's been a nightmare," Ms. Quick said. "She has seen murderers and other convicted felons come and leave since she's been there. It's cruel."

Although the Michigan legislation would make some offenders eligible for early parole, a decision about their release is ultimately up to the parole board. Drug offenders have the highest rate of parole, at 72 percent, Mr. Marlan said.

Nearly 62 percent of other nonviolent offenders receive parole when they are first eligible, followed by violent offenders at 40 percent and sex offenders at 15 percent, he said.

The legislation requires judges to follow state guidelines when sentencing criminals to prison. But eliminating mandatory minimums will give them much more discretion.

"The time had come to make the change," said David Morse, the Livingston County prosecutor. "The idea of stiff severe penalties for drug kingpins was a problem because we weren't getting those kingpins. We were getting people who were carrying on behalf of kingpins."

Under current law, Michigan judges are allowed to deviate from the mandatory minimum guidelines only in extraordinary circumstances.

Now, the law requires a sentence of at least 10 years and up to 20 years in prison for a person convicted of possessing 50 to 224 grams of narcotics or cocaine. The legislation would allow the judge to impose any sentence up to 20 years.

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti, Dec. 26 (AP) - Gunmen opened fire on the home of a slain journalist's widow, killing a security guard who was keeping vigil at the gate (relevant press release).

Michele Montas said Thursday that the attack happened minutes after she had pulled into her home in Petionville, just outside Port-au-Prince.

Two men approached on foot about 5:30 p.m. Wednesday and opened fire at the front gate, killing security guard Maxim Seide, Montas said.

Her late husband, Jean Dominique, a prominent journalist and radio station owner, was gunned down at his station, Radio Haiti-Inter, on April 3, 2000. Montas, who is also a journalist, has run the station ever since, serving as anchor of the daily newscast that they used to lead together (Montas' house).

The gunmen escaped, and police blocked off the area outside the house to investigate. One other security guard who was posted in the courtyard was not injured.

The motive behind the Christmas Day attack was unclear, but Montas has been vehement in her criticism of attacks on the press in Haiti and the slowness of an investigation into her husband's killing. No one has been charged.

She said she believes the attack was connected to the expected indictment of her husband's killers. An investigating judge has promised indictments by the end of the year.

Press freedom groups also have faulted the government for failing to bring Dominique's killers to justice. He was widely considered Haiti's most prominent opinion maker. Once a supporter of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, he was killed as he began to criticize the governing party.

Aristide has said he supports freedom of the press, but the France-based group Reporters Without Borders has criticized him for allegedly not doing enough to rein in violence against journalists.

"The presidency vigorously condemns the attack and deplores the death of Maxim Seide," presidential spokesman Jacques Maurice said. "We want to reinforce the security of journalists."

More than 90 journalists have been harassed or roughed up this year, the vast majority of them by government supporters, according to the Association of Haitian Journalists.

The number has increased sharply since mid-November, when anti-government protesters began demanding Aristide's resignation, accusing him of tolerating attacks on his enemies and not doing enough to solve the impoverished country's problems.

In the past two months, two radio stations have been damaged in arson fires in the Caribbean country, including Radio Etincelles in west-coast Gonaives and Radio Maxima in north-coast Cap-Haitien.

The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists has said it is "deeply concerned about growing threats against Haitian journalists.

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti, Dec. 22 — For each sewing machine that remains idle at Dietrich Siegel's factory here, life grows harder for at least five relatives who depended on the person who made a living at it. As Mr. Siegel looked at rows of dozens of silent machines on a recent day, he lamented that he and his workers were losing not only money, but also time (mass murder in haiti).

"I won't ever be able to make up for having empty rows like this," said Mr. Siegel, the vice president of Classic Apparel, which in recent years has been forced to close one factory and to sell another. "When time is gone, it's lost."

Much time has been lost in Haiti. Its manufacturing base has shrunk by half from its peak in the mid-1980's, down to 25,000 jobs, because of political instability (A Haitian Doctor's success in the fight against disease).

Although Haiti's daunting social and economic problems have earned it unwanted comparisons with Africa, the manufacturers envy Africa in one important aspect: to try to reverse the decline in jobs, Haiti's manufacturers are lobbying the United States Congress to pass a trade act that would grant Haiti duty exemptions held by sub-Saharan nations since 2000.

The bill would allow Haitian clothing factories, which now receive exemptions only if they use American fabric, to use fabrics from other countries, where they might cost less. A bill has been sponsored and supported by an unlikely coalition of Democrats sympathetic to the embattled Haitian government and by Republicans just as critical of it, who see the measure as a way to jump-start the Haitian economy.

Manufacturers here say that if Congress were to approve such an exemption in its next session, factory jobs could triple. They also say it could spur other industries to invest in Haiti, whose advantage as the hemisphere's least expensive labor market has been outweighed by an infrastructure that has deteriorated, partly because of a freeze on foreign aid.

"This is a noncontroversial issue," said Jean-Edouard Baker, a factory owner and past president of the Haitian Manufacturers' Association. "This is not aid going to the government. It is putting in place a structure that will encourage investment and create jobs. We desperately need jobs."

More than half of Haiti's population is unemployed or barely subsisting on less than a dollar a day, and the manufacturers say the situation is desperate.

At its peak, Haitian industry produced everything from clothing and electronics to baseballs for the major leagues. Its economic free fall began after Jean-Claude Duvalier was ousted in 1986 and continued through the economic embargo of the early 1990's, when Haiti was isolated after a coup drove out the democratically elected president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide.

Although Mr. Aristide returned to Haiti after the American invasion in 1994, manufacturing jobs did not. Political deadlocks and accusations that Haiti was among the countries that used child labor and sweatshop conditions drove away existing clients, including Disney, which had been a major customer. Those customers moved to more stable places like Nicaragua and Honduras while keeping other companies from even considering the island.

The manufacturers contend that the reports of abuses were blown out of proportion but that they have corrected problems and are monitored these days by companies that give them contracts.

Manufacturers said they saw a way to spur jobs when President Bill Clinton signed into law the African Growth and Opportunity Act in 2000, which opened American markets to a portion of African-produced clothing made with non-American material.

"In every measure Haiti is similar to sub-Saharan Africa," said Jean Paul Faubert, the vice president of the manufacturers' group. "So why not have trade parity?"

The proposal to extend trade benefits could help Haiti take advantage of trends within the industry and the region, the manufacturers say. Its closeness to the United States provides for cheaper transportation and faster turnaround at a time when stores are ordering with less lead time.

Factory owners in the Dominican Republic have also begun to consider expanding or moving some operations into Haiti, because manufacturing has been so successful there that workers are demanding higher-paying jobs, like those assembling electronic components. Haitian workers receive about $2 a day and transporting supplies to Haiti or finished goods from Haiti to the United States is cheaper than for Honduras or Nicaragua, which in recent years have gained 22,000 jobs from companies based in the Dominican Republic.

Dominican and Haitian politicians, civic and business leaders have already been exploring the possibility of opening factories along their mutual border, where tensions have always simmered over illegal Haitian immigration. They have also begun to develop Free Zones like those in Central America that provide concessions to manufacturers and provide streamlined access to services ranging from electricity and telecommunications to shipping and customs procedures.

"The manufacturers are leaving the Dominican Republic and looking for other places, anyway," Mr. Faubert said. "If they can think of Haiti, they cannot only create more employment, but improve security since people no longer will have to cross the border. It is in everyone's national interest to see the Haitian economy do better."

Outside the Classic Apparel factory here, street vendors sit on dusty sidewalks selling piles of oranges or bottles of motor oil. Most of the workers inside the factory could just as easily end up on the street, Mr. Siegel said, since it was only last month that a large order came in that allowed him to rehire workers who had been idle for much of the year.

Even then, the order was not big enough to fill all the rows of sewing machines inside his cavernous factory.

"I wish we still had three factories," he said. "We had to concentrate everything here and try to keep it alive. But we need more jobs."

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti, Dec. 23 - Police raided a remote village and fired shots as they chased away an armed band led by former soldiers opposed to Haiti's government, an official said Monday.

No one was injured as police swooped in by helicopter and raided the village of Pernal, which had been occupied by about 50 armed men, presidential spokesman Jacques Maurice said. The group fled during Saturday's raid as police set off grenades, but two men were captured, he said.

"The soldiers abandoned their uniforms, and took flight after setting fire to the homes they were staying in," Maurice said (?). Ten homes were burned, independent Radio Metropole reported.

The group included about 10 ex-soldiers — who served in Haiti's army until it was disbanded by Aristide in 1994 — and about 40 other men, Maurice said. Previously, officials had said the group was entirely made up of ex-soldiers.

The government accuses the men of carrying out attacks as they demand the ouster of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. It was unclear what charges the two captured civilians might face.

The group allegedly made its base in Pernal, in the hills outside the town of Belladere, about 60 kilometers (40 miles) northeast of Port-au-Prince. Authorities were searching for those who fled.

The government accuses members of the group of killing regional justice of the peace Christophe Lozama on Nov. 28.

The group also allegedly stormed a police station Dec. 10 and released four prisoners, two of them suspects in the Lozama killing. The men killed four people as they fled that day.

The government has accused the opposition of trying to overthrow Aristide and lending moral support to the armed band. Opposition leaders insist they oppose violence.

Joseph Jean-Baptiste, who leads an association of ex-soldiers, said he doubted the official account of the raid and said the government "has staged an event in an attempt to eliminate former soldiers."

It wasn't immediately possible to confirm the government's account due to the area's remoteness.

Since mid-November, tens of thousands have protested in anti-government demonstrations to demand Aristide's resignation. Police and Aristide's supporters have intervened, and clashes have left at least three dead and some 350 injured.

The opposition accuses Aristide of incompetence in dealing with problems from poverty to political violence. But the president says he has brought relative peace and has refused to step down before his term ends in 2006.

Aristide first won the presidency in 1990, but was ousted in a military coup after less than a year and went into exile.

Restored to power following a 1994 U.S. invasion, Aristide demobilized the Caribbean country's army and replaced it with a civilian police force.

Aristide ceded power to chosen successor Rene Preval in 1996, then won a second five-year term in 2000. Major opposition parties boycotted the presidential vote due to a dispute over flawed legislative elections earlier that year.

Aristide now supports holding early legislative elections next year. But the opposition refuses to appoint representatives to an electoral council, saying the government must do more to ensure security and arrest perpetrators of past political violence. (mn-imj)

Hundreds protest government in Haiti's second-largest city despite temporary police ban

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti, Dec. 23 - Hundreds marched in Haiti's second-largest city Sunday to protest the government of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, defying a temporary ban on public demonstrations during the holiday season.

A dozen Aristide partisans in the northcoast city of Cap-Haitien opened fire on the opposition supporters, community leader Frandley Denis Julien said by telephone. No injuries or arrests were reported.

Police had previously given the group five minutes to disperse and firefighters threatened to douse the marchers with high-pressure hoses, Julien said.

The pro-Aristide group also threw urine-filled bottles and rocks at the opposition marchers in an attempt to break up the demonstration. The march, which lasted nearly four hours, continued but was later broken up by police who fired tear gas into the crowd, witnesses said.

Scores of anti-government demonstrations have taken place in the past month, often broken up by police or Aristide supporters. Clashes have left at least three dead and 350 injured. The dead and injured include both Aristide partisans and government opponents.

Police on Friday banned all demonstrations in Haiti until Jan. 8, calling it a "truce" for the holiday season. "All demonstrations are prohibited during this period," police spokesman Jean-Dady Simeon said.

Opposition leaders called the temporary ban a violation of the constitution. "The ban is illegal," said opposition spokesman Jacques Etienne, who participated in the march. "It violates our right to assemble and demonstrate peacefully."

Aristide's opponents accuse him of incompetence, corruption and a pattern of tolerating attacks on his enemies.

The president says he has brought relative peace to the country. Aristide and his governing Lavalas Family party have agreed to early legislative elections next year, but he has refused to step down before his term ends in 2006.

Since Aristide's victory in flawed 2000 elections, his government has been stymied by a lack of international aid, investment and growing poverty.

Haiti is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere and has a population of 8.2 million people. (mn-fg)

Dozens of ex-soldiers opposed to Haiti's totalitarian government are blamed for attacks in remote town

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti, Dec. 20 - More than 50 ex-soldiers have taken up arms in a remote town and carried out attacks as they demand the ouster of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, government officials said Friday.

The men, who served in Haiti's army until it was disbanded by Aristide in 1994, are concentrated in the rural village of Pernal, some 60 kilometers (40 miles) northeast of Port-au-Prince, presidential spokesman Jacques Maurice said.

"We are waiting for the opportune moment to disarm them, but we don't want to spill innocent blood," he said.

Some of the heavily armed men established the base there several months ago but kept a low profile until last month, Maurice said.

He accused members of the group of killing regional justice of the peace Christophe Lozama on Nov. 28 during a clash between Aristide backers and opposition supporters.

The former soldiers also stormed the nearby Las Cahobas police station on Dec. 10 and released four prisoners, two of them suspects in the Lozama killing, Maurice said. The group killed four people as they fled, including three known government supporters.

The ex-soldiers also were accused of firing shots at a police vehicle recently. No one was injured.

In interviews broadcast by independent Radio Metropole, the ex-soldiers said they aim to overthrow Aristide and restore the army that he disbanded.

"We have assumed the responsibility of taking action to force Aristide out of power," one former soldier said, without giving his name.

The political opposition has denied trying to oust Aristide by violent means. But government spokesman Mario Dupuy said: "The uprising is part of a general plan to destabilize the government."

Special police units are in the area where the ex-soldiers have their base, officials said. The government has offered to negotiate, but the men have refused.

Since mid-November, tens of thousands of Haitians have protested in anti-government demonstrations, demanding that Aristide step down. The president's opponents accuse him of incompetence, corruption and a pattern of tolerating attacks on his enemies.

Aristide says he has brought relative peace to the country and has refused to step down before his term ends in 2006.

Meanwhile, police and Aristide's supporters have intervened in the protests, leading to clashes that have left at least three dead and some 350 injured in the past month.

Aristide first won the presidency in a landslide in 1990, but the army overthrew him after less than a year in office. He lived in exile in Washington until U.S. troops helped restore him to power in 1994.

Once back in the Caribbean country, Aristide demobilized the army and replaced it with a civilian police force.

Facing a term limit, he ceded power to chosen successor Rene Preval in 1996, then won a second five-year term in 2000 elections boycotted by major opposition parties.

Dupuy said the ex-soldiers in Pernal have brandished the red-and-black flag of former dictator Jean-Claude Duvalier, who fled the country for France during a popular uprising in 1986.

In a rare television interview shown Tuesday on the U.S. television network CBS, Duvalier said he had resigned "to avoid blood flooding the streets" and urged Aristide to do the same. (mn-imj)

Betting on its brand name, Hilton sees a future in Haiti Poor economy, protests fail to dim chain's vision

Haiti's economy is contracting, street protests are routine, and the U.S. State Department has all but suggested that visitors stay away (photos).

Early next year, across the street from the capital's airport, investors will officially break ground on a 196-unit hotel that would be the Caribbean nation's largest.

The Hilton D'Haiti hopes to attract business people seeking to slip into the country and avoid the trek -- and the safety risks -- of heading downtown. Travelers will be able to rent an extended-stay apartment and office space as well as shop and eat at three restaurants, all without stepping outside the hotel's 15-foot-high wall.

''A lot of people who don't stay overnight now or who don't go to Haiti at all because there's not a branded hotel will find a sense of security and familiarity with a brand like Hilton,'' said Bruce Baxter, president of the Coral Gables-based InnVest Inc., the project's consultant.

Though Hilton will manage the hotel, the $52.5 million complex is being built by Harding Enterprises of Louisville, Ky., which owns the Haitian cigarette company Comme Il Faut and a food-distributorship business. The two businesses are located close to the airport, an area that is evolving as an industrial hub.

Investors say a Hilton will attract new businesses to Haiti. They also hope that the political turmoil -- protests have grown in recent weeks as the government and opposition leaders remain deadlocked over disputed 2000 elections -- will have cooled by the time of the hotel's scheduled opening in 2005.

Hilton D'Haiti will be the country's only international-brand hotel. Haiti's Club Med closed, and Holiday Inn pulled its name off a downtown hotel a few years ago. Currently, business travelers tend to stay in one of four upscale hotels that have a total of 374 rooms, according to an industry index. The Hilton will add 50 percent more rooms.

The heyday of Haitian tourism came in the 1970s, when foreigners toured art galleries and sampled the local cuisine. Now, most tourists are business people, missionaries or aid workers.

And while 141,000 people visited Haiti last year, according to the Caribbean Tourism Organization, only about a third stayed in hotels. Occupancy nationwide varies from 30 percent to 50 percent, said Elisabeth Silvera Ducasse, president of the Haitian Tourism Association.

Despite that, word of the Hilton project has been received well by business leaders and even by local hoteliers, said Ducasse, who is also managing director of the family-owned El Rancho hotel in the suburb of Petionville.

''I remember,'' she said, 'my father always telling us: `If new companies come into Haiti with names that are known all over the world, it will attract more people to come here.' ''

Her only worry, Ducasse said, is that if the Hilton fails to draw travelers, it might have to lower prices below local market value, which in turn might drain business from her and other locally owned hotels.

The 27-acre Hilton complex was designed by OBM International, a Coral Gables-based firm that has been involved in projects around the Caribbean and done consulting work for the Village of Key Biscayne.

''The biggest challenge it has to face is Haiti's international reputation,'' said John Bell, director general and chief executive of the Caribbean Hotel Association, which is based in Puerto Rico. ``One has to hope and believe this current trauma the country is going through has to have an end.''

2002 brought war detainees to Guantanamo, U.S. food sales to Cuba, stepped-up political conflict in Haiti

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico, Dec. 19 - The new year promises possible trials for detainees held at Guantanamo Bay, new pressures to ease the U.S. embargo on trade with Cuba and increased turmoil in Haiti, where the opposition is pressing President Jean-Bertrand Aristide to resign (photos).

The U.S. military began flying prisoners from Afghanistan to its naval base at Guantanamo in eastern Cuba in January. They still have not been charged, are not allowed lawyers and face an uncertain fate.

The U.S. government says at least some could be tried by military tribunals, while others could be released or held indefinitely. In the meantime, they remain imprisoned on suspicion of links to Afghanistan's fallen Taliban regime and Osama bin Laden 's al-Qaida terrorist network.

Despite Cuba's long-standing disapproval of the U.S. presence at Guantanamo, the government in Havana says it won't oppose the American detention operation.

With some U.S. lawmakers' support, Fidel Castro's government is pressing for a loosening of the embargo on trade with the island and is buying U.S. foods, from rice to apples, under an exception to the sanctions.

During a visit to Havana in May, former U.S. President Jimmy Carter urged the United States to do away with the embargo and urged Cuba to embrace democracy. While some dissident groups are demanding guarantees for rights such as freedom of speech and private business ownership, the 76-year-old Castro has indicated he intends to stay in power for years to come.

In Haiti, protests against Aristide's government grew in 2002 as thousands of his opponents took to the streets calling for his resignation. The president's supporters held large counter-demonstrations, and political violence appeared to be on the rise.

Aristide says he has brought relative peace following years of repeated coups and that he plans to serve out his term, which ends in 2006. While the political disputes rage, poverty continues to entrap most Haitians in a daily search for food.

The economy has seen healthy growth in Haiti's wealthier neighbor, the Dominican Republic. But the poorest Dominicans, like Haitians, continue entrusting their lives to rickety boats as they leave in search of opportunity elsewhere.

Power shortages and electricity rate hikes led to violent protests that killed at least 15 Dominicans in 2002. Meanwhile, the Dominican political system is adapting to new leadership following the death in July of former President Joaquin Balaguer, who ruled for 22 years and wielded influence until his death at age 95.

Nearby Puerto Rico marked its 50th anniversary as a U.S. commonwealth, and the U.S. Navy (news - web sites) held what was expected to be its last full year of bombing exercises on the Puerto Rican island of Vieques.

U.S. President George W. Bush has promised the training will be halted by the end of May, and the Navy is looking for alternative sites where it can train for future conflicts.

Across the Caribbean in French Guiana, the European space program is trying to improve its performance after the botched launch of an Ariane-5 rocket from its South American launch center on Dec. 11. The rocket, carrying two satellites, veered off course after liftoff, forcing ground control to destroy it as it fell toward earth.

With a decline in the number of travelers following the 2001 terrorist attacks, many Caribbean islands that traditionally rely on tourism have suffered. Some islands are seeing visitors return, while persistent unemployment is driving young people to leave countries such as St. Lucia and Dominica.

In Jamaica, where an active drug trade has fed violent crime, Prime Minister P.J. Patterson has promised to reintroduce executions, last carried out there in 1988.

His governing party, along with those of the Dominican Republic and Trinidad, held onto power in legislative elections during the past year.

Throughout the region, meanwhile, anti-terrorism efforts have given new importance to security. In Antigua and Barbuda, where U.S. sniper suspect John Allen Muhammad lived for a time, a government-appointed task force has been investigating how he allegedly falsified documents to get Antiguan passports for himself and others.

Leaders across the Caribbean say they face challenges in boosting their fragile economies, protecting the environment and addressing a high HIV-infection rate. At a recent summit in Cuba, Castro pledged 1,000 medical workers to help fight AIDS in other Caribbean countries.

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Dec. 17 -- Dueling demonstrations in Haiti's capital on Tuesday marked the one-year anniversary of an attack by armed men on Haiti's National Palace and subsequent mob violence throughout the country (photos).

While hundreds of opposition party members held a rally in their burned-out headquarters, President Jean-Bertrand Aristide met with several thousand of his supporters in front of the palace, which was draped with black cloth as a sign of mourning for those who died in last year's assault.

The differing commemorations resulted from two interpretations of Dec. 17, 2001. While the government called the assault an attempted coup d'état, opposition parties say it was a sham used to justify the attacks by pro-government mobs that followed.

A lengthy report by the Organization of American States released last summer said the Dec. 17 assault was not a coup but was instead carried out with police complicity.

''Today is important to us. It shows that despite all Aristide's efforts to make us disappear, to burn us out, to destroy us, we are still here working for the reconstruction of the country,'' said Suzy Castor, director of a research center that was sacked and burned, and also a member of the People's Struggle Organization, which is a member of the Democratic Convergence opposition alliance.

Victor Benoit, head of the National Congress of Democratic Movements, also a member of the Democratic Convergence, agreed on the importance of the gathering.

''It is the anniversary of destruction, disaster, crime and attacks against the press. It is the anniversary of a day of human rights violations,'' Benoit said.

A mile away, Aristide and his Lavalas party noted the anniversary with a mass meeting before the National Palace.

Thousands of Aristide supporters, dancing to several carnival bands playing drums and horns, shouted slogans as they marched from the Bel-Aire neighborhood to the National Palace.

''If you are in the palace yard, it shows that while last year there were putschists in the palace, today the people are in the palace,'' said Aristide, who was engulfed by his jubilant supporters as soon as he emerged from the bright white building.

Many of the supporters were also carrying rawhide whips, which they said they would use against Aristide's enemies.

The commemorations came one day after more than two dozen anti-Aristide parties announced they had reached unity on a broad plan that calls for Aristide's resignation, a transitional government and a general election.

The unity document signals the opposition's recognition that the OAS-brokered Resolution 822 is ''over,'' said Gerard Pierre-Charles of the People's Struggle Organization. Resolution 822 calls for the government to take illegal guns off the streets, judge those who carried out the Dec. 17, 2001, mob attacks and assure a safe climate for parliamentary and local elections under Aristide's auspices.

KABUL, Afghanistan - Women caught talking with men on the streets of Herat, a major city in western Afghanistan, risk being seized by special morals police, taken to a hospital, and forced to undergo an exam to determine if they have had sex, according to a report issued yesterday by Human Rights Watch.

Under the control of Ismail Khan, the former Islamic militia leader who governs Herat Province, women and girls are living in an atmosphere of official religious restrictions similar to those imposed by the extremist Taliban regime that was toppled by US and Afghan military forces 13 months ago, the New York-based human rights group said.

''Virtually every aspect of women's and girls' lives is still policed in Herat,'' the report said. It said they are subject to harassment and arrest if they do not cover themselves with a veil in public, or if they enter a taxi driven by a man who is not a close relative, attempt to drive a car, or speak or walk with a man on the street.

Khan, who styles himself the ''emir,'' or Islamic ruler, of Herat and several surrounding provinces, has previously defended his human rights record and his policies toward women, pointing out that he has reopened numerous girls' schools that were shut by the Taliban and has welcomed women into the work force.

But both Human Rights Watch and several Afghan-based human rights groups said Khan, who commands thousands of armed followers and enjoys virtually autonomous regional power, appears to have become more extreme in his Islamic views and restrictions on women than during his first, pre-Taliban stint as governor in the early 1990s.

''What is most alarming is that women are not being allowed to express themselves freely,'' said Amina Afzali, a member of the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission who is from Herat. ''They cannot object to anything Ismael Khan says or does, they cannot gather publicly, they cannot raise their voice. It is the same as it was under the communists'' in the 1980s, she said.

Afzali said neither she nor the commission had heard any reports of women in Herat being forced to undergo medical chastity exams, as described by Human Rights Watch yesterday. She said she found it a ''strange'' allegation and suggested the report might be exaggerated.

But another organization, the Afghan office of the International Human Rights Law Group, said its informants in Herat confirmed that such cases had occurred.

The Human Rights Watch report does not name any alleged victims or witnesses of forced gynecological exams, which it called ''a form of sexual abuse.''

But it quotes unnamed hospital workers and relatives describing in detail the humiliating treatment of women and girls dragged into the Herat Hospital for such punitive tests during the past year.

The investigating team sent by Human Rights Watch to Herat last month did not conduct any interviews with Khan or his aides, but team members said they were detained by armed men on the last day of their stay, taken to a government guest house, and questioned for several hours about their activities.

Last month, the New York group issued an equally critical report on general human rights conditions in Herat, describing a ''pattern of widespread political intimidation, arrests, beatings, and torture by police and security forces'' under Khan's control.

Historically, Herat has been one of Afghanistan's most cultured and modern cities, with a major university, extensive contacts with neighboring Iran, and many women in professional jobs.

But under Khan, Human Rights Watch said in its November report, a ''climate of fear'' exists, and Khan is creating a ''closed society'' where many Taliban-era restrictions are being revived.

Khan, a white-bearded, ethnic Tajik of about 50, has dismissed such criticisms as politically motivated, while stressing his commitment to making Herat a secure, educated, and efficiently governed region after years of war and strife.

PARIS, Dec. 16 - Jean-Claude ''Baby Doc'' Duvalier, the former dictator of Haiti who has lived in exile in France since 1986, has granted his first television interview to an American journalist in 15 years (photos).

The interview, with WFOR-CBS4 investigative reporter Michele Gillen, will be aired tonight on CBS 4 at 6 and 11 p.m.

Considered by many Haitians to have run a regime marked by brutality, financial fraud and political persecution, Duvalier told Gillen Sunday that he is ``intent to return to his country.''

Questioned about the allegations of abuses under his government and that of his father, Francois Duvalier, he responded, ``I never said that there weren't any abuses.''

During the 2 ½-hour interview in a Paris hotel, Duvalier said he now hears the cries of his people, who ``are suffering a lot. It is not bearable. It is revolting.''

Gillen: It has been 15 years since you agreed to an interview with an American television journalist. Why now?

A: The greatest risk is that this chaos transforms into utter and uncontrollable violence.

He does not have the possibility of ruling Haiti anymore. He has been rejected by the vast majority of the population. He should, according to me, retire.

It is impossible to deceive people for too long. Aristide reveals himself as the greatest fraudulent user of power of all time.

How is it possible to explain that 16 years after my departure the children's mortality has been increasing? Sixty percent of the population is not in a position to get enough food. And life expectancy is diminishing. How is it possible to explain that 16 years afterward industrialists have to close their doors and there are no tourists anymore?

People are suffering a lot. It is not bearable. It is revolting. I know of parents who can't have their children go to school anymore. Some families eat every other day.

Q: Do you feel the issues of starvation and real life and death are greater now than they were 15 or 20 years ago? A: There is no possible comparison. The country has gone backward by 50 years. All the infrastructure has been destroyed. What is left is in a miserable state. Part of the capital does not have electricity.

Q: Do you want to return to Haiti? A: It is my firm intention as soon as conditions allow.

A: In spite of all these years that have elapsed since I was in Haiti, I am still very touched by that country. I suffer from being away as well as from seeing the misery under which the Haitian population has to live. That is why it is my duty to go back to the country and participate in the rebuilding of my country.

Q: Do you live with the fear of being held criminally accountable for allegations of misappropriation of dollars from Haiti?

Q: Under what circumstances did you step down? In the final hour, who came to you and said you must go?

A: Nobody came to me to say that I had to leave. I thought it was best for me to leave because I wanted to avoid blood flooding the streets in Port-au-Prince and elsewhere. I had the means to stay in power, but I thought it was better for me to leave.

Q: It has been reported that the American government essentially forced your hand and said you had to leave.

Q: The U.S. policy that doesn't consider Haitian refugees [migrants] as political refugees . . . do you agree with that?

A: There is chaos in Haiti. There are no available means to govern the country . . . Students were injured by bullets. Journalists were persecuted; two of them died. So that leads me to think that faced with such a situation, the Bush administration should grant the status of political refugee.

Q: It will be difficult . . . for some people to accept your raising concerns over abuses today and not taking any responsibility for abuses under you and your father's regime.

Haiti's National Palace draped in black to commemorate attack as opposition rallies against Aristide

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti, Dec. 17 - Opposition leaders rallied for a new government in Haiti on Tuesday, a year after government supporters torched opposition offices and gunman stormed the National Palace.

"We have assembled to commemorate the terrible events of Dec. 17 and to set democracy back on track by calling for the resignation of the man who was responsible for them," said opposition politician Mischa Gaillard, asking for President Jean-Bertrand Aristide's resignation.

Activists gathered in the charred headquarters of the 12-party Convergence opposition alliance where several hundred people shouted "Down with Aristide!" Two cameraman who work for Aristide's foundation, Tele Ti-Moun, were barred from entering.

Protests against Aristide's government have grown stronger in the past month with pro-government supporters holding separate rallies to defend the former priest's popularity. At least three people have died in clashes and more than 350 people have been injured.

On Tuesday, the National Palace was draped in black to commemorate last year's attack when gunmen stormed the building before dawn. The attack, and the violence that followed, put an end to more than a year of fruitless Organization of American States mediated talks to get the government and opposition to agree on new elections.

Aristide's Lavalas Family party swept the ballot in May 2000 in elections the opposition denounced as rigged.

Agreeing to early legislative elections next year, Aristide has refused, however, to step down before 2006. Opposition leaders say they won't participate in any elections unless security is improved.

"The struggle in Haiti is not about Aristide at all. The struggle is about empowering poor people to have some say in their lives," said Ira Kurzban, a U.S. attorney for the Haitian government.

Government spokesman Mario Dupuy said to sabotage the electoral process is to wage "total war against the people."

Aristide won the presidency in a landslide Dec. 16, 1990, but the army overthrew him after less than a year in office. He lived in exile in Washington until U.S. troops helped restore him to power in 1994, demobilized the army and replaced it with a civilian police force. He ceded power to his chosen successor Rene Preval in 1996.

In a race boycotted by major political parties, Aristide won a second five-year term in November 2000, when the provisional electoral council said 60 percent of the electorate had cast their ballots.

Since the victory, his government has been stymied by a lack of international aid, investment and growing poverty.

Last year on Dec. 17, gunmen attacked the National Palace in what the government said was an attempted coup. Six people, including several former soldiers, were arrested but no trial dates have been set.

Following the attack on the palace, Aristide partisans torched opposition offices and the residences of its leaders. At least 10 died in the violence, which caused millions of dollars of damage.

The opposition charges the Dec. 17 attack was an event staged to clamp down on dissent.

In the past month, tens of thousands of people in scores of anti-government demonstrations have demanded Aristide step down, charging his allegedly anti-democratic government with incompetence and corruption. The demonstrations have often been broken up by police or Aristide supporters.

Some 25 opposition political parties and alliances have signed a declaration calling for Aristide's resignation.

The OAS — which in a September resolution, exhorted Aristide to disarm the holders of illegally possessed weapons, pay reparations to the victims of the Dec. 17 violence and bring its perpetrators to justice, has faulted the government for not doing enough to persuade the opposition to participate in elections.

But the OAS, which accepts Aristide's legitimacy, has also rebuked his foes for straying from the electoral path. (mn-pd)

By Jacquline Charles and Jennifer Maloney, Miami Herald Writers jcharles@herald.com

As the first batch of asylum requests were heard and denied Monday, advocates to free the detained Haitians worried that the denials were a sign of what's to come in the next few weeks.

Immigration Judge Rex J. Ford on Monday denied each of the requests for political asylum submitted by five male Krome detention center detainees. He told them, despite their compelling testimony, they failed to establish that they would be persecuted if returned to Haiti.

Ford also told the detainees that their testimony failed to demonstrate that they were refugees in Haiti, meaning they could not go elsewhere within the country to seek refuge from the political persecution they claim to have suffered.

''I am not unsympathetic to your situation,'' Ford told detainee Jalet Entienma through a translator. ``It's a very unfortunate story you told. . . . In your case, there is no evidence you were persecuted based on the guidelines the laws provides for.''

Entienma's asylum application was among the first 100 submitted last week as part of the Oct. 29 boatload of Haitian migrants who jumped off a boat in Biscayne Bay near the Rickenbacker Causeway. Another 100 or so applications are expected Dec. 27 in what immigration advocates and attorneys are calling an accelerated process designed to expedite deportation.

Holding several documents in his hand, Entienma, dressed in navy blue shirt and pants and a brown jacket, initially gave Ford a letter seeking a continuance in his case. But Ford denied the request, as he did in the others.

Barely audible at times, an ill-prepared Entienma attempted to make his case for asylum by telling Ford he feared returning to Haiti because of his brother's disappearance -- 12 years ago. Since then, Entienma said, he has been unable to live in Gonaives, his native village.

''It appears your brother was affected by criminals in Gonaives,'' Ford told Entienma, dismissing the migrant's claim that his brother's disappearance was politically motivated. ``There is no indication [you were] harmed in any way in Haiti.''

Immigration advocates and attorneys say the detainees -- those with and without lawyers -- are being railroaded through a system on a fast-track to deportation. There just isn't enough time to properly prepare the cases, they said.

''We can't represent someone if we know little or nothing about their case. That's a sham,'' said Cheryl Little, executive director of Florida Immigrant Advocacy Center, who spoke at a rally Monday demanding the release of the migrant children from INS custody.

Last week, in a bid to buy more time, Little sent a letter to the Executive Office for Immigration Review, outlining the obstacles she and other attorneys face in representing the Haitians. They include: insufficient time to meet with clients, inadequate meeting space, hourslong waits to meet with clients, reduction of visitation hours and the unusually accelerated hearing schedule.

''It's very discouraging,'' said Randolph McGrorty, executive director of Catholic Charities Legal Services, which sent each of the detainees a letter saying it was willing to represent them but needed until Jan. 13 to prepare.

Even in cases like Garcon Jean-Louis, whose attorney received the case that morning, representation made little difference. Attorney Alain Armand failed to get Ford to continue the case, after raising concerns about his client's mental health.

''Even if the court were to believe the testimony concerning his claims, the court would find he failed to meet his burden,'' Ford ruled in the case.

Markenzy Lapointe doesn't like tooting his own horn, but plenty of others are willing to praise the first Haitian-born man to serve as a federal prosecutor at the U.S. attorney's office in Miami.

''Mark is an outstanding person who has excelled as a student, soldier and lawyer,'' U.S. Attorney Marcos Daniel Jiménez said. ``I am thrilled that he has chosen to join our office and once again serve our country and community.''

Patrick White, who oversees recruiting as executive counsel to Jiménez, called Lapointe ``the whole package. He's a future leader, not only in this office, but in this town. He's got all of the right characteristics: patience, humble, smart, seriousness of purpose.''

Lapointe, who clerked for Florida Supreme Court Chief Justice Harry Lee Anstead, will start in the Appellate Division, but looks forward to frontline prosecutions in the Major Crimes Division. ''I'm eternally grateful to have the opportunity to work in this community,'' Lapointe, 35, of North Miami, said at the end of his first day of orientation courses.

The appointment of a Haitian federal prosecutor in a community the size of Miami was long overdue, said Andre Pierre, a prominent member of the Haitian Lawyers Association and a friend of Lapointe's.

Actually, Lapointe is the second Haitian-born prosecutor in the Miami office. Assistant U.S. Attorney Magda Lovinsky was born on the island and raised stateside.

According to 2001 Census Bureau estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau, there are 167,713 native Haitians in the area -- 55,810 in Broward and 111,903 in Miami-Dade. Community activists say those numbers are low.

Lapointe was born in Port-au-Prince. His father was a tailor and his mother sold balloons on the streets. In 1984, he immigrated to Miami's Liberty City neighborhood. Three years later he graduated from Miami Edison High School.

While he was working on an associate's degree at Miami-Dade Community College, Lapointe joined the U.S. Marine Corps Reserves.

After transferring to Florida State University, he was placed on active duty and sent to the Persian Gulf where he served in the infantry.

After the war, he returned to Tallahassee, completing his bachelor's degree in finance in 1993. He became a naturalized American in 1995 while living in Miami and working for a foreign bank. With some guidance from Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Daryl Trawick, the following year Lapointe enrolled at the FSU law school. After Lapointe graduated from law school in 1999, Anstead picked him for one of the court's clerkships.

''My clerkship was the greatest experience I had professionally,'' Lapointe said. ``I was working for an incredibly bright and incredibly passionate man. And I learned a whole lot about the appellate and trial practice.''

Lapointe lives in North Miami with his wife, Andrise, and their 2-year-old son, Eric. His parents and four siblings are all in South Florida.

Lapointe is fluent in both Creole and French. But in reality, he said, ``the joke around the house right now is if I went to France right now, could I order a meal?

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti, Dec. 12 - To his many impoverished followers, President Jean-Bertrand Aristide is the leader they fervently believe will lift them out of their misery. To his opponents ? a group that has become more vocal and more visible ? he is a demagogue who must reform or resign for the good of the country.

Those competing camps have clashed in the streets here in recent weeks, sometimes with fatal results as Haiti's lingering political stalemate, now two years old, flirts with disaster and disorder.

Negotiations have so far failed to end the deadlock, which stems from an election dispute. Several hundred million dollars in foreign aid have been frozen because of the crisis, and the economy of the hemisphere's poorest nation has festered.

Yet President Aristide says Haiti is at peace, or at least not in open warfare, thanks to him. In a 90-minute interview at the National Palace, he said he had already made significant concessions to his opponents.

He faulted international lenders for criticizing him while not providing Haiti with money that would allow the government to work. He has every intention, he said, of finishing his second five-year term. "I am not saying that I am the best," he said.

"I am saying it is not easy to find someone capable of doing what I am doing for two years. I do not have to say a lot. I just have to invite people to look at what we have accomplished with nothing."

As much as offering a defense of his record, the statement provided a précis of Haiti's political conundrum.

Even his critics acknowledge that for all his flaws, there is no other politician with Mr. Aristide's popular standing. But they complain that the president has deflected responsibility for the political deadlock and made progress toward breaking it impossible.

Despite assurances about his commitment to democracy, they say, he has built his support in part by playing dangerously on the race and class differences that have made the country's politics so volatile — and its democratic governments so fleeting — since Haiti's founding.

"If he does not do something dramatic we are going to be in a terrible situation," said a leading businessman who has tried to intercede with the government. "I do not know if he has the wisdom to do what is necessary, because time is running out."

The Organization of American States has urged international lenders and donors to release the money, and donors meeting in Washington this week said they were looking for ways to provide some immediate funds to assist development and provide jobs.

But first they want Mr. Aristide to make some administrative changes that will account for how the money is used. Those changes hardly depend on the political opposition, said one official at the meeting.

During the interview, held in the antechamber to his office in the hushed, almost still palace, Mr. Aristide portrayed himself as having already been reasonable with his opponents, a fractious coalition known as the Democratic Convergence.

He has offered to shorten or even end the terms of the winners of the disputed 2000 elections, he said. He blamed the opposition for sabotaging any chance for a peaceful resolution of the political crisis by refusing to take part in new legislative elections next year against his Lavalas movement.

"Those who say Lavalas is weak, why not go to elections?" he said. "It would be good for the country."

His critics answer that Mr. Aristide has been slow to guarantee their security, particularly since a mysterious nighttime raid on the presidential palace a year ago that the president's supporters say was an attempted coup.

Since then, the critics say, the government has yet to disarm gangs of thugs who have sought retribution and intimidated Aristide opponents. Some say it is an indication that Mr. Aristide cannot control his supporters in the Lavalas movement, or does not want to.

Diplomats are warning both sides not to use the anniversary of the palace raid, next week, to provoke more confrontations.

Cambridge, MA, Dec. 13 - A man from Mars - or from Pluto - could be expected to miss a symbolic funeral mass and precession, with a lot of political significance, in Haiti Thursday (photo).

A symbolic funeral mass was said Thursday in Port-au-Prince, Haiti's capital, for the country's brutal dictator, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, after his death was mocked and that he died Wednesday from drinking the blood of innocent citizens, the results of an autopsy performed thereafter on the body affirmed.

If for some of the students, tyrant Aristide should simply be fried in hell, but for others it was also an opportunity to set scores, even with the dead body of a little red man they could not get in life to make him pay for his incalculable number of crimes - most of them brutal murde.

During the course of the funeral procession, leading to Port-au-Prince's cemetery, where the dictator's body was to be put to rest, students could be heard chanting from miles away: "You bastard Arisitide, die again! You thief Aristide, die again! Let's kick the dictator's body, and now."

Less than two minutes later, the closed pink casket, a cheep one, with a made believed tyrant Aristide's body inside, was nearly reduced into pieces after a large number of enraged students kicked it several times before they were restrained by colleagues, who said "Oh Satan, Oh Satan is now gone, there is no need to even attempt to touch his toxic body," which prompted an intermittent cry of long live Haiti! Down with dictatorship!

"Letènel, mesi anpil, mwen kontan anpil Satan mouri (God, God thank you very much, I'm extremely happy that Satan has died)", said a very old lady, 87, who declined to give her name, standing across the street watching the funeral procession.

Aristide says vast majority of Haitians support him ByJim Defede and Marika Lynch, Miami Herald Writers mlynch@herald.com

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Dec. 12 -- Appearing calm and confident, Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide on Thursday dismissed the notion his government is in trouble or that he has lost the support of his people.

''Today, I am here at the palace, it is not a gift. The vast majority of the people are with me,'' Aristide said during a wide-ranging, 90-minute interview in his office.

Aristide pledged to hold elections next year and said that Haitian immigrants who reach Florida are economic, not political, refugees -- a designation that would all but close the door on the possibility of winning political asylum.

He saved his harshest criticism for the United States and the international community for blocking aid for his government's projects more than two years ago. He argued that international leaders, and not his government, are responsible for the turmoil in his nation.

''In 1990, Haiti was the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. Twelve years later, Haiti is still the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere -- not because of what we did, but because of what those [members of the international community did] -- imposing an economic sanction against us as a people,'' Aristide said. ``They have the responsibility.''

Recently, Haiti has faced almost daily protests, where opponents demand Aristide's resignation and alleged supporters become violent in his name.

Aristide acknowledges there is political violence in his country -- among those who support him and those who don't. Nevertheless, he said, the levels are exaggerated.

He also questioned why human rights groups and the media often blame his Lavalas Party for the violence. To make his point, he mentioned an attack on a police station Tuesday night, where four people were killed in an apparent attempt to free an opposition member arrested for murdering a Lavalas judge.

As is often the case in Haiti, Aristide says things are not always as they seem. In recent weeks, political gangs who say they are pro-government have taken to the streets, even beating anti-government protesters with whips on Dec. 3 to preempt a march in downtown Port-au-Prince.

While opponents see the groups as Aristide's ''enforcers,'' the president said it is unclear who is behind them.

''It is not easy to distinguish which one is really supporting us when they are causing violence,'' Aristide said.

Despite their declarations, some may commit violence to embarrass the government and try to turn people against him, Aristide said.

To Aristide, the country's political and economic crises are intertwined: The international community denies aid, people grow desperate, and there are outbursts in the streets.

In fact, Aristide said, it is surprising Haiti isn't more unstable, given the poverty and 70 percent unemployment rate in the nation of eight million. He credited himself with keeping the country together.

''I would want to see who could sit here in this office and spend the past two years without economic assistance and keep the country intact, relatively peaceful and intact,'' Aristide said. ``Tell me, if in Detroit, you could have such a peaceful environment when there is a blackout. Tell me, if in Haiti, where you have months of blackouts, not just hours, you can still have a peaceful environment.''

Haiti's democracy is young and experiencing growing pains, he said. The country is trying to break the addictive cycle of coups that had gripped the nation for almost 200 years. He said it would take time to develop strong democratic institutions.

Aristide is facing the biggest test to his leadership since the September 1991 coup that forced him into exile in the United States. A once small, elite opposition has grown, and recently students, business leaders and human rights groups have condemned the government, and some have demanded his resignation.

The country has been locked in a political stalemate since May 2000, when the Lavalas Party swept parliamentary elections that observers said were flawed. Afterward, the international community blocked aid, including more than $150 million in loans for roads and health projects.

This summer, the Organization of American States released that aid, but the government still hasn't received the money. Among the stumbling blocks: the country still owes money on other loans.

Critics, however, said Haiti's economic problems are more fundamental, and go beyond the lack of aid.

Financial mismanagement, the recent collapse of local cooperatives, or investment groups that went broke after devolving into a pyramid scheme, and a rumor-fueled banking crisis that sent millions of dollars out of the country also have deepened the economic crisis.

Aristide's opponents and the international community say Aristide also is slow to impose reforms.

Earlier in the week, the OAS chastised the Haitian government for not doing enough to provide a secure environment for legislative elections, which Aristide wants to hold next year.

Opposition leaders say they won't participate until the government can ensure a safe environment in which to campaign and vote. Aristide rejects that notion. If an election can happen in civil-war torn Colombia, he said, it can happen in Haiti today.

The opposition is afraid of contesting elections and is stalling, Aristide said.

''They fear elections. They prefer to choose violence sometimes,'' he said, adding that elections will take place in the first six months of next year.

The OAS also criticized the Haitian government for not arresting people implicated in the burning of opposition members' homes and headquarters last year.

Aristide said he has called for their arrests, but the judiciary is independent.

''Our judicial system is corrupted, our police [department] is young,'' Aristide said, adding he can't get involved because he would violate the separation of powers.

In the interview in his office, where he sat beneath a portrait of Haitian independence hero Toussaint L'Ouverture, Aristide also talked about Haitian immigration to the United States.

Video footage of more than 200 Haitians scrambling to the shore off Key Biscayne in October saddened him, he said. Though some said they were fleeing political persecution and have asked for asylum, Aristide said the exodus is economic, exacerbated by the international community's blockage of aid to the government.

''It is clear in my mind that the people left for economic reasons. Haitians are proud, willing to stay in Haiti and work in Haiti,'' Aristide said. ``Haitians enjoy working. When you see someone leaving the country . . it is because they are suffering so much.''

Despite the seriousness of the issues he is confronting, Aristide was in remarkably good spirits during the interview, laughing and joking at times, and making it clear he enjoys being president.

Asked about his plans for the remainder of his term, Aristide said: ``My answer may surprise you. What I am looking forward for is a peaceful Haiti, a democratic Haiti.''

Repairing the economy, attracting investment to the island, and improving the education system are important to him as well, but a stable democracy is the first priority.

``For the coming three years I will continue to try my best to try and protect that peaceful and democratic environment because I know once we have that, the rest will come.''

Poor, abused and largely ignored, Haiti's street children endure daily struggles

LES CAYES, Haiti, Dec. 10 - On the edge of town, dozens of boys congregate below a statue of Jesus. It's their home as they scratch out lives on the town's littered streets noisy with trucks and motorcycles.

Forced from their homes by poverty and broken families, the children load and sweep buses for meager tips. They don't attend school, their clothes are ragged, and fellow citizens largely regard them as a nuisance.

"I don't know my age," says a barefooted Jean-Claude George, who has the body of a 10-year-old but the gaze of a man who has known years of suffering. "I've been on the street a long time."

Like others among the children who sleep on buses or near the white statue, Jean-Claude fled an abusive home in the countryside for this town on Haiti's southern coast, 100 miles (160 kilometers) from the capital of Port-au-Prince.

He earns small change on the buses to pay for food and shoes, but the sandals often disappear in the company he keeps.

"The other kids keep an eye on me all night," he says. "Once I go to sleep, they steal them."

Street children struggle in cities around the globe, from Sao Paolo to Bombay. But in this Caribbean nation, the Western Hemisphere's poorest, the problem of homelessness among children is especially severe.

Some experts say the situation has worsened in recent years amid Haiti's political turmoil. Thousands of children wander the cities, looking for odd jobs, begging or stealing to eat.

President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, a former Roman Catholic priest, has tried to make children's issues a cornerstone of his presidency, but government efforts have failed to bring the children off the streets.

In 1986, before he was president, Aristide founded the Family Is Life orphanage.

His political involvement eventually made it a target for opponents. In 1991, the same year he was ousted in a coup, five children died in a suspicious fire at the facility. In 1992, some children were wounded when Aristide opponents stormed the building and began shooting.

The orphanage eventually closed in 1999 amid protests by orphans who said promises of jobs weren't kept.

Dominique Esperant, the former regional head of the social affairs ministry in Les Cayes, hopes to put street children back on the political agenda.

"Everyone seems to think the best way to deal with this is to kick these kids out of town," Esperant says. "I believe they can become good citizens like anyone else if someone is there to help them out."

Frustrated by a lack of government funds, Esperant is trying to raise money independently to start a center to house street children.

He meets with the children below the statue of Jesus, drawing a crowd as he writes their names on a list. At last count, the list had 57 names.

"There is no work back home," says Lesene Souverain, 17, who says he left home when he was 9 because his parents couldn't pay for school. "At least on the streets, there are people who can help me."

In the nearby hills, deforested land is turning into desert. Curls of smoke rise as farmers use remaining trees to make charcoal for cooking. Esperant says most of Les Cayes' street children come from this wasteland.

"They don't have any arable land to plant anymore," he says. "So they came to the city to look for life, to look for a way to survive."

Child labor is common even for those stay at home. Boys in Les Cayes sell crackers and muffins from trays on their heads. In Port-au-Prince, some young girls work as prostitutes to augment family earnings.

Sometimes, poor parents give away children to be servants for better-off families. It's widely accepted in Haiti to keep a child servant, or "restavek" — a Creole term that means "staying with."

The children often are mistreated, and human rights groups criticize the practice as child slavery. Abuse drives many restaveks to the streets.

In Les Cayes, many people express little pity for the children, calling them "grapiyay," or hustlers.

Jean-Claude's young face, like those of others, bears scars. He says he won't return to the home where his father beat him.

4 Haitian journalists hiding from pro-Aristide gang; Plight of group underlines peril facing profession across nation

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Dec. 9 -- Esdras Mondelus named his station Radio Etincelle, literally Radio Spark, because he wanted his broadcasts to illuminate people's lives. But the light has gone out.

The station's four reporters, plus three others, are in hiding here, living in fear.

Two weeks ago, the so-called Cannibal Army, a gang that supports President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, went hunting for them at their station in the northern town of Gonaves. The journalists jumped a wall and hid in the local bishop's house until police escorted them to the capital.

The group represents some of the 64 Haitian journalists threatened over the past two years, says the Haitian Journalists Association, which filed a complaint on their behalf to the Inter-American Human Rights Commission. In other cases, journalists were beaten by police, attacked by protesting university students, and one says he was assaulted by members of the presidential guard, according to association documents.

In Haiti, where nearly 85 percent of the population can't read, radio is king -- a powerful and often feared force.

Reporters risk their lives, or even lose it like Jean Dominique, the popular news director at Radio Haiti Inter who was shot to death in his station's courtyard.

A year later in 2001, another reporter, Brignol Lindor, was hacked to death with a machete after the local mayor denounced him.

''You have armed groups linked to the government constantly threatening journalists. What's worse is that the government often doesn't make sure these people are punished. That's the most serious threat to press freedom,'' said Joseph Guyler Delva, head of the association.

The government realizes that ''some journalists are being persecuted for voicing criticisms,'' said presidential spokesman Luc Especa. The violence is part of the political polarization in Haiti right now, Especa said.

''The government is doing the best it can to establish order and to urge everyone to remain calm,'' Especa said.

Delva concedes there is a measure of press freedom in today's Haiti. For example, he said, unlike Haiti under the Duvalier regime, reporters can criticize the government and not worry about officials shutting down the station. Yet, he said, there are still grave problems.

The journalists in hiding are from Gonaves, a northern port city four hours by car from the capital.

It is the headquarters for the Cannibal Army, a pro-Aristide gang led by Amiot Metayer, who escaped from jail in August.

Reporters at Radio Etincelle said they've been getting threats since their live coverage of a protest in Cap-Hatien Nov. 17, which turned out to be the largest anti-Aristide march the country has seen.

So on Nov. 21, the crew was in the streets of Gonaves again, covering a student march. Word spread that the Cannibal Army was after them, Mondelus said.

The reporters went back to the station and opened up the telephone lines to get callers' reaction to the day's political events.

Soon after, members of the Cannibal Army ran toward the station, and seven reporters -- including three that work for other stations but use the office -- jumped the station's wall. They hopped on the back of motorcycle taxis, common in Haiti's countryside, and went to the bishop's house.

''We thought we were already dead,'' said Mondelus, 31, Radio Etincelle owner and executive director.

The reporters say they cowered in the courtyard for two hours until the bishop finally let them in.

The bishop feared reprisals for hiding them. At one point, church leadership wanted the reporters to leave, but the head of Haiti's Organization of American States mission intervened. The reporters stayed for seven days, eating meals of spaghetti brought by a church member, praying they wouldn't be found. They called their wives, their mothers, every day.

The mother of reporter Jean-Robert François was in tears. Michelin François told her son and local radio that she'd received threats. We know where your son is; we're going to kill him, the callers said.

''Try not to cry too much,'' Jean-Robert François said, trying to console his mother. But she too had to leave her home and go into hiding.

The Haitian Journalists Association called the police, which sent three high-level officers on a rescue mission to pick up the group by helicopter. The aircraft was supposed to whisk them to safety Friday, Nov. 29, but couldn't take off. It needed to be serviced.

The reporters had to move, though: Their hide-out at the bishop's house had been discovered.

They went to a hotel, but thugs came and started firing outside. Delva, of the journalists association, was on the phone with Haiti's head of police at the time.

''We could see people from our room, running, falling down, trying to flee,'' Delva said. ``The journalists panicked. They had nowhere to run.''

The police immediately sent two jeeps, which took the reporters to Haiti's second largest city, Cap-Hatien. There they boarded a small plane for the capital, where they continue to be in hiding.

The reporters want to go back to work but say they won't until the government meets some conditions. They want Haiti's police to arrest the gang leader Metayer and take away the Cannibal Army's weapons.