Posted at 4:39 p.m., Wednesday, November 2002

Haiti clashes escalate; Petit-Goave demonstrators called for Aristide's removal   

By The BBC, Wednesday, 27 November, 2002

There have been renewed clashes between anti-government protesters and supporters of Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.

In the city of Petit-Goave, about 70 kilometres (45 miles) west of the capital Port-au-Prince, more than 1,000 people demonstrated against Mr Aristide - his supporters pelted them with rocks.

In Gonaives, some 130 km north of the capital, anti-government protesters clashed with 200 heavily-armed members of a street gang known as the Cannibal Army which is said to be loyal to the president.

Aristide is accused of allowing a "climate of terror" to develop

At least nine people have been injured this week, including a high school student who is in critical condition after being shot twice in the head.

Over the last two weeks, there have been a number of opposition protests and violent counter-demonstrations by armed supporters of the president which have paralysed city streets and businesses.

"The situation is very delicate and we fear civil war," Prime Minister Yvon Neptune said on Monday.

Opposition groups are calling for the removal of Mr Aristide, a former Roman Catholic priest now in his second term as president. Haiti Aristide re-elected in 2000 in a poll boycotted by the opposition First elected president in 1990 - ousted by a coup seven months later Returned to power in 1994 with US backing

Business leaders accused the authorities earlier this week of allowing what they called a "climate of terror" to dominate the country.

Haiti is one of the poorest countries in the region and correspondents say the worsening economic situation has contributed to discontentment with Mr Aristide.

The government has accused the private sector of pushing for "foreign intervention".

Officials blame much of the nation's insecurity on a lack of support from international financial institutions.

The international community suspended millions of dollars in aid to Haiti after the disputed May 2000 elections, which gave Mr Aristide's governing Lavalas Family party most of the parliamentary seats.

                                                                                                                                                     Haiti unrest could rattle Washington

By Frances Kerry, Reuters Writer

MIAMI, Nov. 27 (Reuters) - A wave of unrest in Haiti has exposed President Jean-Bertrand Aristide's shaky rule and if the situation unravels further could pose an unwelcome problem for President Bush.

At a time when Washington's focus abroad is on its continuing drive against terrorism and possible war in Iraq, the prospect of turmoil in the Caribbean and a flow of boat people would be awkward for the United States, analysts said .

Over the past week, dissatisfaction with Aristide and with a worsening economy has flared, with thousands of people calling for the president's ouster in rallies in several cities across the impoverished Caribbean nation. Counter-protesters have turned out, and violence has erupted sporadically.

"The big question is whether Aristide is going to understand that he has no future," said Timothy Carney, a former U.S. ambassador to Haiti. "Without massive reform, Haiti is once again headed for kind of chaos that has intermittently dogged its history."

Henry Carey, a political science professor at Georgia State University, said he did not think Aristide's rule was threatened for the moment, but added the government had again shown it had to use force to quell unrest.

Eight years after sending in troops to invade Haiti and restore Aristide to power, U.S. policy on Haiti revolved largely on avoiding avoid a mass influx of refugees, Carey said. Washington can ensure this as long as the Coast Guard continues to intercept and repatriate boat people trying to get to Florida, he said.

"The Bush administration is not going to get involved (in an intervention) in Haiti," Carey added.

However, some analysts say the United States would be rattled by a possible boat people exodus. The Coast Guard, which intercepted some 25,000 Haitians at sea during an exodus in 1994, has a new focus on security after the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States.

The U.S. Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba -- used in the past as a staging post for Haitian boat people -- currently serves as a prison for Taliban and al Qaeda suspects from the Afghan war.

INVASION PUT ARISTIDE BACK IN POWER

After years of bloody dictatorships, Haiti's fragile democracy was barely taking root when Aristide, a former Roman Catholic priest who had been elected on a wave of grass-roots support, was ousted in a military coup just seven months into his first term in 1991.

President Bill Clinton sent in 20,000 U.S. troops in 1994 to reinstate Aristide. But Washington's relations with Aristide have soured as critics contend he has used a heavy hand with political opponents and the country has failed to hold credible elections.

Some argue the U.S. invasion should have been followed up with more "nation building" -- both to work on reforming the economy and solidifying Haiti's democracy.

"We shouldn't have just upped and left," said James Morrell, an advisor to Aristide while in exile and now head of a policy group called the Haiti Democracy Project.

"We should have stayed to ensure good institutions were established." Morrell said the current situation in Haiti "has the look of the beginning of the unraveling, but that's as far as you could go. I don't see any evidence Aristide is going to leave or be pushed out."

Aristide stepped aside as constitutionally mandated in 1996, his place taken by protege Rene Preval. He was re-elected in 2000 for a second term that has been marked by a bitter feud with the main political opposition over the results of parliamentary elections in 2000 and increasing disillusion among many of the country's 8 million inhabitants as living conditions worsen in the poorest country in the Americas.

Foreign donor countries have withheld aid worth hundreds of millions of dollars because of the stalemate over the elections. Aristide's government has blamed this for many of the country's current woes.

Washington has been strongly critical of Aristide.

"On virtually all fronts, from the timely accounting of its actions taken with respect to the political violence of last December, to ending impunity, to disarmament, to reparations, to counternarcotics, to election security, the government has simply not moved with enough purpose or effectiveness," said then-assistant secretary of state for the western hemisphere Otto Reich in October.

For Lawrence Pezzullo, a retired ambassador who was special envoy to Haiti under Clinton and is a stern critic of Aristide, the 1994 invasion showed military action was not a ticket to democracy. He said the experience could be a lesson for Washington if it is to seek to replace Iraq's President Saddam Hussein.

"I don't think using troops creates democracy," Pezzullo said. "Before you go talking about knocking over somebody, you had better think where you're going to go with it."

Copyright © 2002 Reuters Limited.

                                                                                                                                                      U.S. Coast Guard repatriate more than 30 Haitians after they were found in dangerous waters Monday

By The Associated Press

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti - More than 30 Haitian migrants were repatriated to their impoverished homeland Wednesday after a U.S. Coast Guard cutter rescued them from a rickety boat, the U.S. Embassy said.

The 23 men and nine women were intercepted Monday about 13 miles (21 kilometers) off Great Inagua in the Bahamas. The migrants said they left the northcoast town of St. Louis du Nord on Sunday aboard a 38-foot (11-meter) wooden boat. When the cutter intercepted them, their vessel was taking on water.

Some 157 Haitian migrants have died due to hazardous vessel conditions this year, the U.S. Coast Guard reported.

The U.S. government changed its detention policy on Haitian refugees last December to discourage a feared mass exodus. Before the policy change, Haitian migrants applying for asylum were released into the community while their petitions were processed.

Haitians arriving since December, however, are kept in immigration custody until they receive asylum or, more likely, are deported.

In spite of fears, there has been no significant increase in the overall numbers of Haitian migrants.

The U.S. Coast Guard reported picking up 1,486 Haitians at sea between October 2001 and September 2002, compared with 1,391 in the previous year.

Thousands of Haitians each year risk dangerous voyages aboard rickety, crowded boats in search of economic opportunities.

Some end up in the Turks and Caicos Islands, others in the Bahamas, and some make it to Florida. Many are repatriated to Haiti, the hemisphere's poorest country, where two-thirds of the 8.2 million population is unemployed and most people survive on about $1 a day.

Three out of five Haitians suffer from malnutrition, and a Haitian's chances at birth of not living to 40 are nearly 32 percent, the United Nations reported.

Copyright © 2002 The Associated Press.

                                                                                                                                                  Haitians want Haitian refugees to be treated like Cuban refugees

By WPLG Click10.com

Miami, Nov. 27 - Protesters gathered at Bayfront Park Tuesday night as a way of keeping fresh in the public's mind the desperate journey to freedom made by a group of Haitian refugees last month.

They called for the more than 200 Haitain refugees to be treated like Cuban refugees who are allowed to stay in the states if they make it to dry land.

Due to more civil problems in Haiti, the protesters fear more migrants are on the way.

"There's no question that unless the Inter-American Development Bank and the World Bank and the U.S. seriously engage in giving funds directly to the Haitian government, so they can begin projects to assist people in the country and that money flows into that country, you're going to have a massive amount of refugees coming into South Florida," said immigration attorney Ira Kurzban (pictured).

As for those Haitians who came ashore at Key Biscayne last month, they'll remain in detention until their asylum hearings.

Copyright © 2002 WPLG Click10.com.

                                                                                                                                              Freedom, Hopeless, in Haiti: Christians under the gun

By Paul Strand, CBN News Correspondent

In 1994, President Clinton and the United Nations decided to send some 20,000 troops and sink $3 billion of aid into Haiti in an attempt to save the sinking state. Eight years later, the question is, did it do anything at all?

CBN.com – PORT AU PRINCE, Haiti, Nov 27 - President Clinton and much of the rest of the world intervened eight years ago in Haiti to end its violent political turmoil and spiral into abject poverty. But the violence is a back in a big way, and some of it is aimed at Haiti's Christians.

Despite its staggering 80 percent unemployment rate and the threat of widespread hunger and disease that hangs over the land, Haiti can seem upbeat.

CBN News was there on a national holiday and people were dancing in the streets. But one pastor, who worried about revealing his identity, told us, "On the surface everything seems to be going fine, but underneath there is a lot of pressure coming from the government for people who stand for the right."

Some say leader Jean Bertrand Aristide is a dictator who ignores Haiti's needs and has people murdered if they speak against him. They accuse Aristide of, like many past Haitian leaders, using civilian thugs and mobs to frighten the population.

"To hold the streets you've got to govern using mobs, which he does very well," said Stephen Johnson of the Heritage Foundation.

Still, some brave Haitians have formed opposition groups around men like

Pastor Luc Mesadieu, head of the Mochrena Party. "This is the only political party in the country that promotes Christ as the only solution," Mesadieu said. Pastors like Mesadieu have paid a stiff price for preaching against Aristide.

Some wanted to keep their identities hidden when they talked to us. Mesadieu didn't mind going on-camera. He says thugs burned his house and four cars sitting in his courtyard this past December. They also chased him into hiding, but worst of all, "They killed my bodyguard. They burned him with gasoline," he said.

One pastor, who we will call Jean-Marc for the sake of his anonymity, said, "Many times after I preach, they come in the front and tell me they're going to come and burn the church and burn my house."

Mesadieu produced photos showing the house, church and school run by the vice president of Mochrena all burned. "And they took all that he had, and everyone that was on his campus - everything was burned out," he said.

So is this a question of religious persecution or merely the way it is sometimes in the dog-eat-dog, vicious world of Haitian politics?

Melinda Miles of the left-leaning Haiti Reborn Project says people should not blame Aristide for the violence infecting Haiti. "Following the transition to democracy, there is often an increase in public insecurity and anarchy. And I think that's what the situation is in Haiti today," Miles said.

And some blast Aristide's opponents, saying they are not innocent victims, but members of the groups that backed the bloody coup that overthrew Aristide back in 1991.

"Most of the people in that were people who supported the military regime. This was a regime that killed at least 3,000 Haitians. That was unspeakably brutal," said Larry Birns of the Council on Hemispheric Affairs.

Miles said, "[They are] people who are somewhat bourgeois and elite and have the time to be intellectuals and philosophize about politics. It also includes some of the people who funded the coup d'état that happened in 1991, and who funded the military junta throughout that period when the Haitian people were being starved and killed."

But some of these persecuted preachers are obviously not rich politicians. They have churches right inside the worst slums like Citie Soleil, a vast ghetto filled with Aristide's radicals.

Jean-Marc told us what these radicals have done to another Citie Soleil pastor. "They have closed his church down, burned his house, burned his funeral home which he has to make a living for his family," he said.

This same pastor took us to a grisly location - a bridge surrounded by acres of garbage where he says people like the Christians who oppose Aristide are shot and then often left to rot.

"The corpse stays on the ground for one or two days," the pastor said. "So when they call the mayor and sanitary people to come and take off the dead bodies, they don't. So, when the odors begin to come up, then the dogs and the pigs come and make the funeral."

One church has seen violence just down the street. "About two or three blocks from here, there was a man that they killed, and he was the son of our colleague and his dead body laid down for three days," he said.

Mesadieu described another bloody attack. "On October 26, Pastor Ilton Antonov was leading a prayer service. A mob from Aristide's party broke in and opened fire. The pastor took seven bullets to the abdomen and 23 others were wounded," he said.

But are these pastors and congregations attacked because of their politics or their religion?

"Once you are a pastor, the government would like for you to just preach part of the gospel. But according to what I see in the Bible, I know Jesus is not only concerned about the soulish part of man, but the gospel is concerned for the entire man," Jean-Marc said.

"We are here to point out the wrongs and to preach the gospel," he continued. "When you begin to denounce the government's misdoing or mischief and injustice and abuse, they begin pointing out that you're a politician, and then you begin to suffer pressure."

"Sometime, after preaching, people are calling me on the phone and telling me to beware for myself. Watch out if you continue saying those things, you know what will happen to you," Jean-Marc explained.

Mesadieu says he is attacked because his party is so popular, Aristide realizes it may well replace him. "He wants to, by any means, eliminate me, put an end to my life, because I represent the most prominent political party in this country," Mesadieu said.

Miles disagrees. She says the entire Democratic Convergence, the opposition coalition of which Mochrena is a part, enjoys little support.

"I have yet to meet a strong grassroots cooperative or group of peasants or women in the countryside who support the Convergence," she said.

Brian Concannon is an American lawyer working in Haiti at the Bureau of International Advocates. He says he still finds tremendous support for Aristide in the streets.

"They always say, 'He's never betrayed the people.' And that is the basic foundation of his support is that people trust him. People think that he will take the side of the majority of Haitians who are poor," Concannon said.

But Mesadieu believes Aristide's violence has lost him the right to rule. "He is illegitimate. He is not a real leader for the Haitian people. All over the country people are being killed, persecuted, kidnapped...all led by Aristide and his mob."

The rest of the world is watching and judging these developments in Haiti. The U.S., other nations and international organizations have been holding up some $500 million in aid because of Haiti's violent and corrupt politics.

Those countries and groups will meet next month to decide whether Haiti can be trusted enough to let that aid flow again.

The Christian Broadcasting Network, Inc. © 2002Wednesday, November 27, 2002

                                                                                                                                                                                     Posted at 12:36 a.m, Wednesday, November 27, 2002

Steady protests stir trouble in Haiti; high school student shot and in critical condition

By Michael Norton, Associated Press Writer

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti, Nov. 26 - More than 1,000 Haitians demonstrated against President Jean-Bertrand Aristide on Tuesday and clashed with gun-wielding Aristide supporters who pelted the protesters with rocks (photos).

At least one anti-government protester was shot during the demonstration in Petit-Goave, about 70 kilometers (44 miles) west of Port-au-Prince, where days earlier pro-government supporters paralyzed city streets and businesses by blocking roads with flaming barricades.

Tension has been building in Haiti where thousands have taken to the streets to protest Aristide's government, which they blame for deepening despair in the impoverished nation. Emotions flared Tuesday when a high school student, shot Monday during an anti-Aristide demonstration, was fighting to stay alive and in critical condition at a hospital.

"In what kind of country are we living in if children can be shot at as though it means nothing," said a declaration signed by Haiti's foremost novelist Gary Victor and 14 other writers.

In 1985, Haitian soldiers shot and killed three high school students during an anti-government demonstration. Protests over the killings sparked a popular uprising that helped oust dictator Jean-Claude Duvalier.

"A majority of Haitians have come to realize that Aristide must go. If he's hanging on, it's because of the gangsters that support him," said Petit-Goave student leader Roland Laguerre.

Aristide's government has blamed much of the nation's insecurity on a lack of international support. Since flawed elections in May 2000 gave Aristide's governing Lavalas Family party most of the parliamentary seats, the international community has suspended millions of dollars of aid.

Premiere Yvon Neptune blamed government foes for inciting a civil war to furnish "the pretext of a foreign occupation."

Aristide won the presidency in 1990 but was overthrown in a coup after less than a year in office. He lived in exile until the United States helped restore him to power in 1994, completing the remainder of his term, then ceding power to Rene Preval. Aristide returned to power in 2000.

Opposition politicians blamed the recent violence on the government and said reform was needed urgently.

"From one violent act to another, Aristide is going from the frying pan into the fire," said Petit-Goave politician Deus Jean-Francois.

During demonstrations on Monday in Port-au-Prince, and the western towns of Gonaives and Petit-Goave, at least nine people were injured. Five of the injured were anti-government protesters, while the other four were Aristide partisans, authorities said.

In Gonaives, high school student Ronald Jesse was shot twice in the head during a demonstration when 200 heavily armed Aristide partisans led by activist and escaped inmate Amiot Metayer disrupted the protest.

Metayer, who was charged with arson, escaped from the Gonaives prison in August with more than 150 inmates when Aristide partisans bulldozed a hole in the prison's wall. Neptune said Metayer hasn't been arrested because an arrest may spark further unrest.

In an apparent reprisal for Jesse's shooting and the others wounded in the demonstrations, two men on a motorcycle shot and wounded two people in Metayer's shantytown on Tuesday afternoon, witnesses said.

Other demonstrations are planned for this week. (mn-pd)

Copyright © 2002 The Associated Press

                                                                                                                                                  Rallies prove dangerous as 6 protesters shot in Haiti street rallies prove dangerous for supporters, foes of Aristide  

By Jane Regan Special to The Herald

PROTESTS: Thousands of students continue their protest against Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide in Petit Goave, Haiti, on Monday. More than a thousand anti-government protesters poured into provincial streets, clamoring for the resignation of Aristide. DANIEL MOREL/AP

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Nov. 26 -- Six people, including one high-school student, were shot during street demonstrations as political turmoil continued to rock Haiti on Monday.

Both supporters and foes of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide grew more strident as calls for the president's ouster grew.

In the northern port town of Gonaives, a pro-Aristide gang called the Cannibal Army broke up an anti-government march with gun shots, and vandals torched a radio station.

In Petit-Goave, southwest of the capital, students burned government fliers. In Port-au-Prince, pro-Aristide march leaders released doves for peace even as they shouted violent threats.

''If there is a coup d'etat, we are going to imitate our ancestors! Imitate our ancestors!'' said Alfred Micanord, a former actor and Aristide supporter, whipping up a crowd in front of the National Palace.

He referred to the famous statement by Haitian independence hero Jean-Jacques Dessalines, who told slaves to behead French colonists and burn their homes. ''

A civil war here is almost unavoidable,'' Belfont Aristide, a former radio correspondent, told Radio Metropole.

Protests have erupted around the country for nearly two weeks, climaxing Friday when Aristide supporters, in a show of force, paralyzed the capital with burning barricades.

Aristide's government is under increasing pressure, and its grasp on the streets is dwindling.

Anti-government crowds have grown as the national currency tumbles in value and the government is slow to make reforms.

The country has been entrenched in a political stalemate since Aristide's Lavalas Party swept the 2000 parliament elections, which observers said were fraudulent.

Aristide has agreed to new elections but hasn't set a date because of political squabbling.

The president remained silent Monday, but the Organization of American States, which for two years has tried to broker peace among political parties, condemned the government for not stopping protesters who essentially shut down Port-au-Prince last week.

The government should organize elections, the OAS said in a statement, yet observers and leaders doubted that would happen anytime soon.

''Elections are not possible,'' said Pierre Robert Auguste, a business leader from the Artibonite region, which includes the city of Gonaives.

His business group was one of several that condemned the government for inaction.

In Gonaives, police broke up an anti-government student march with tear gas.

Then, the Cannibal Army moved in, witnesses said, injuring at least three. Among the injured was the high-school student.

''The Cannibal Army has guns. They don't tolerate any demonstrations against the government,'' said Father Marc Eddy Dessalines, who heads the Catholic Church's Justice and Peace Commission in Artibonite.

Police didn't intervene when the Cannibal Army attacked, Dessalines said.

''We never see the police when these people are in the streets,'' Dessalines said.

The gang is headed by fugitive Amiot Metayer, who escaped from prison in August after supporters ran a bulldozer through a jail wall.

Despite pleas from the international community and human-rights activists, Metayer remains free.

Last week, the gang leader even thanked Aristide's Lavalas Party for his freedom, while talking to reporters just outside the Gonaives police station.

Nearly 2,000 Aristide supporters also wound through the streets of Port-au-Prince, wearing T-shirts and holding signs with the president's photo.

State telephone company trucks delivered marchers to the demonstration. State employees and parliament members joined in.

''Aristide for life!'' the marchers yelled.

Government spokesman Mario Dupuy said three Aristide supporters were shot during that protest.

                                                                                                                                                                                         Bush plans new agency to dole out billions in aid  

By Adam Entous, Reuters Writer

WASHINGTON, Nov. 26 (Reuters) - President Bush plans to create a new government agency to dole out billions of dollars in foreign aid, forcing the world's poorest countries to compete against one another if they want a share, administration officials said on Monday.

Strict conditions would be set for countries to qualify under the so-called Millennium Challenge Account program aimed at rewarding cash-strapped governments that embrace civil rights, root out corruption, open up their markets and adopt other policies favored by Washington.

Taking on critics who say the United States does not provide its fair share of foreign aid, Bush has promised $5 billion a year for the new program starting in fiscal 2006. Money would begin to flow in the fiscal 2004 budget, which will be unveiled in February, but officials said the dollar amounts for 2004 and 2005 have yet to be set.

The money would be in addition to the roughly $10 billion the United States distributes each year for foreign development assistance or $17 billion counting security funds.

"The evidence shows that when official development assistance is put into a policy environment that is a bad one, it's not just ineffective, it's downright harmful. It perpetuates bad policies, it perpetuates misery and it crowds out private capital," a senior administration official said.

In contrast, the official said, when foreign aid is directed to countries with sound policies, private capital increases, helping to boost economic growth and fight poverty.

At a U.N. development conference in March, Bush touted the program as part of the U.S.-led war against terrorism, and put his advisers to work hammering out the details. Under Bush's plan, the Millennium Challenge Account would be rolled out in phases over the next three years.

In fiscal 2004, the world's poorest countries, including Haiti, Nepal and Ghana, could compete for assistance.

The number of eligible countries would expand in the second and third years as program resources grow to a total of $5 billion annually.

Once fully phased in, the Philippines, Jordan, Thailand, Peru and more than 100 other countries could compete for foreign aid, but administration officials expect just 10 to 20 to receive assistance each year under the program.

COUNTRIES RANKED

To win a share of the resources, countries would be ranked based on 16 separate "performance indicators," from civil rights to spending on public health and education.

A country's' "economic freedom" would be judged on its credit rating, inflation, budget deficits, openness to trade and quality of regulatory policies.

Bush drew the line at corruption. "Corruption is pass-fail. If you can't pass corruption you're presumed ineligible," an official said.

Those countries which perform better than the average on most indicators could qualify for a share of the resources, pending a review by a cabinet-level panel which will make final recommendations to the president.

To administer the program, Bush will ask Congress to create the so-called Millennium Challenge Corporation. The independent agency would be supervised by a board of directors composed of cabinet-level officials and chaired by Secretary of State Colin Powell.

Officials said the new agency would directly employ around 100 people and draw heavily on the expertise -- and staff -- of the U.S. Agency for International Development and other federal departments.

The new aid could flow to the countries themselves, as well as nongovernmental organizations and the private-sector.

As initially proposed earlier this year, $1.67 billion would start flowing in the fiscal 2004 budget climbing to around $3.33 billion the following year. At the end of the three-year start-up period, an extra $5 billion a year would automatically be included in the budget.

But administration officials said the fiscal 2004 commitment would probably be smaller than the $1.67 billion initially promised since it remains to be seen how many countries will qualify.

Mary McClymont, president of InterAction, welcomed the plan but expressed concern about the administration's commitment to provide full funding. "It could be a very important tool to help improve overall aid effectiveness and fight poverty," she said. "But of course what we will be watching is to make sure the funds in fact materialize."

Copyright © 2002 Reuters Limited

                                                                                                                                                                                       Posted at 4: 38 p.m., Monday, November 25, 2002

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti, Nov 25 (Reuters) - Thousands of people poured out of the slums and marched through the Haitian capital to support President Jean-Bertrand Aristide on Monday in a bid to counter signs of growing discontent with his government.

Accompanied by a traditional voodoo band, hundreds of marchers waved Haitian flags and carried pictures of Aristide, a former Roman Catholic priest serving his second term as president of the impoverished Caribbean nation.

"Aristide represents the power of the Haitian people," said Rene Civil of the government-affiliated Youth Popular Power organization, one the march's organizers. "You can see, as the young people of Haiti march for him, he will finish his five years."

Aristide, who rallied poor Haitians in the 1980s to overthrow the 30-year dictatorship of the Duvalier family, began his second term as president last year. But a dispute with the opposition Democratic Convergence over contested May 2000 legislative elections has snarled the political process and stalled over $500 million in international aid to Haiti's 8 million people.

Opposition groups and students have held several large rallies in recent weeks to protest Haiti's faltering economy and alleged government interference in the school system.

On Friday, Aristide supporters paralyzed the capital with burning tires and bursts of automatic weapons fire and called for the arrest of several high-profile government activists, including Rene Civil.

Aristide supporters briefly surrounded on Monday the U.S. Consulate in downtown Port-au-Prince, where some marchers chanted Slogans sympathetic to Islamic militant Osama Bin Laden. Some Haitians blame the United States for the interruption of international aid to Haiti.

At one point Monday, the sound of shots fired in the air by one marcher sent the crowd running for cover, though no injuries were reported. By afternoon black smoke billowed from tires that Aristide supporters had set on fire in some quarters of the city but by most accounts the march remained relatively peaceful.

Government supporters gathered in front of the National Palace to listen as speakers lambasted the U.S. government and Aristide's domestic opposition.

                                                                                                                                                                                    Pressure mounts in Haiti as thousands demonstrate against totalitarian dictator Aristide and deepening poverty; six fatally shot  

By Michael Norton, Associated Press Writer

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti, Nov. 25 - More than a thousand anti-government protesters poured into provincial streets on Monday, clamoring for the resignation of Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.

Six demonstrators — three anti-government and three pro-Aristide supporters — were shot Monday during protests in west-coast Gonaives and in the capital, where thousands more marched in a pro-government rally.

In Petit-Goave, about 70 kilometers (44 miles) west of Port-au-Prince, students shook anti-Aristide placards and clashed with Aristide supporters who tried to disrupt the protest by throwing rocks.

"We're demonstrating against our unendurable living conditions. Aristide should go, to give Haitian youth a chance to have a future in their country," student leader Roland Laguerre said.

Aristide is coming under increasing pressure to speed government reforms and alleviate worsening poverty in the western hemisphere's poorest country, where most people survive on less than a $1 per day.

The government and opposition have been in a stalemate since Aristide's Lavalas Family party swept flawed May 2000 elections. The disputed elections triggered the suspension of millions of dollars in foreign aid and raised questions of the government's legitimacy.

In Gonaives, demonstrators called for Aristide to step down. Three people, including one high-school student, were shot and injured, officials said. No other details were immediately available.

In the capital, more than 2,000 Aristide supporters marched through the streets. Some demonstrated outside the National Palace and, on the way, stoned an African studies center where anti-government students were meeting. Three pro-Aristide demonstrators were shot outside the center and were in critical condition, government spokesman Mario Dupuy said.

"All sectors of the nation have the constitutional right (to demonstrate), provided it is without violence," Dupuy said. "We condemn violence from wherever it comes."

Fresh elections are slated for next year, but groups worry whether Haiti's current conditions will allow for a safe balloting.

As Aristide supporters demonstrated in the capital, Rene Civil, a founding member of Aristide's governing party, released doves as a sign of peace and said a coup would not be tolerated. Aristide was ousted in a coup in 1991 and years later restored to power.

Haiti's major business associations have accused police and government officials of tolerating a climate of terror.

In Petit-Goave Sunday night, pro-Aristide activists stoned the house of student leader Sandra Jules and shot her dog, officials said. On Monday, flaming barricades blocked the national highway.

On Friday, the capital of Port-au-Prince was totally shut down when, unimpeded by police, activists set up barricades to protest the growing number of anti-government demonstrations.

Presidential spokesman Jacques Maurice said on radio Friday that Aristide street activists have "the right to support" the president, just as supporters of the opposition have a right to demonstrate their opposition. "That is democracy," he said. (mn-pd/kd)

Copyright © 2002 The Associated Press.

                                                                                                                                                                                          Posted at 12:32 p.m., Monday, November 25, 2002                                                                                                                                                   Business groups accuse Haiti's government of tolerating "climate of terror"

By Michael Norton, Associated Press Writer

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti, Nov. 24 - Days after partisans of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide set up flaming tire barricades in the capital, Haiti's business community on Sunday accused police and government officials of tolerating a "climate of terror."

Unimpeded by police, Aristide supporters shut down the capital on Friday by setting up hundreds of barricades to protest a growing number of anti-government demonstrations across the country (Dominican Army Thightens watch).

In a statement released Sunday, 18 business associations said the private sector refused "to accept that groups of individuals ... who act under the high protection of state authorities and the police take the initiative to block the country and national life by the establishment of a climate of terror."

The government rejected the business community's accusations and said the pro-Aristide activists were justified in their action Friday (photos). 

"The movement was not criminal. No one was hurt. People simply did not go to work out of fear," Culture and Communication Minister Lilas Desquiron said in an interview Sunday.

Before dawn on Friday, vehicles belonging to state-run telephone and electricity companies delivered the tires to strategic points, witnesses said.

Police said they did not intervene because the "spontaneous" movement had caught them off guard.

No injuries were reported in Friday's street action, but businesses said they lost millions of dollars with the city's shutdown.

Rene Civil, a founding member of the governing Lavalas Family party, and pro-Aristide activist Paul Raymond said on radio that they had led the movement.

Also Friday, fugitive Amiot Metayer led a heavily-armed pro-Aristide demonstration in west-coast Gonaives.

Police said they did not arrest Metayer because there was no arrest warrant.

Metayer and more than 100 other inmates escaped from the Gonaives prison in August, when Aristide partisans bulldozed a hole in the prison wall. Ten journalists went into hiding after they said they received death threats from Metayer's followers.

The business associations demanded in their statement that authorities arrest Civil, Raymond, and Metayer, and fire state employees who were accomplices in creating the climate of terror.

"These gangsters, publicly supported by government officials, believe they can insult the national conscience by presenting their criminal action ... as a 'pacific and spontaneous' popular action," the business groups said.

Presidential spokesman Jacques Maurice said in radio interviews Friday that Aristide activists have "the right to support" the president, just as opposition supporters have a right to demonstrate. "That is democracy," he said.

Since Nov. 15, tens of thousands have held seven anti-government demonstrations, all calling on Aristide to step down.

The people's increasing loss of confidence in the government has coincided with a widening credibility gap between the government and international community.

"Opportunities to solve Haiti's problems peacefully and democratically are rapidly waning," Organization of American States Assistant Secretary-General Luigi Einaudi said earlier this month.

Haiti's government and opposition parties have been in a stalemate since flawed May 2000 elections gave most victories to governing party candidates. The opposition charged the elections were rigged.

The dispute over the holding of new elections has held up hundreds of millions of dollars in foreign aid.

Last week, five civil society groups, including the business community, agreed to send representatives to a nine-member electoral council to organize elections next year.

But on Sunday, the business community indicated its representative would not take office if the government did not create a more secure environment for the elections. (mn-kd)

Copyright © 2002 The Associated Press.

                                                                                                                                                                                       Posted at 2:36 p.m., Sunday, November 24, 2002                                                                                                                                                   Protest, counter-protests worry and confuse Haitians in S. Florida

By Jacqueline Charles, Miami Herald Writer                                                                                              jcharles@herald.com

While pro-government demonstrators largely shut down Haiti's capital Friday to show their support for President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, a divided Haitian community in South Florida struggled to figure out what it all meant.

Although Friday's demonstration was led by Aristide supporters, it came two days after anti-Aristide student protesters forced their way into the courtyard of a police station in Petit-Goave. Three days before that, tens of thousands of anti-government protesters in Cap-Haitien, the second largest city, called for an alternative to Aristide's government.

The reaction in South Florida has been mixed, with opinions varying depending on how people feel about Aristide. WRONG METHOD

''This is not the way to bring down a government,'' said Arsene Omega, a Little Haiti businessman and member of the local pro-Aristide group, Veye Yo. ``Aristide was elected for five years. He should complete his term.''

Olivier Nadal, former president of the Haiti Chamber of Commerce and Industry before he was forced into exile in March 2000, said the escalating unrest is a sign that change is on the horizon.

''The citizens are getting involved and mostly the young,'' said Nadal, who believes that neither Aristide nor the opposition leadership is fit to run the country. ``The people are fed up with the economic and political situation. The students are in the streets because they are more courageous than other people.

Charles Dieudonne, 30, interviewed at a Little Haiti strip mall, expressed disappointment in the Aristide government, which he said has not made needed changes.

''If you see the people get on the streets, it says they are tired,'' Dieudonne said.

Even Omega admitted Friday that he's beginning to question accusations by government supporters in Haiti that the anti-government protests are the result of the international community plotting against Haiti's sovereignty.

''Even though there is outsider infiltration, it's still Haitians that are doing it,'' he said.

Many South Florida Haitians say they don't believe an overthrow of the government is imminent or that another mass exodus is on the horizon. Still, immigrant advocates said the growing unrest is evidence that the United States should grant temporary protected status to Haitians, allowing them to stay here until the Caribbean nation's political crisis is over.

IMMIGRATION POLICY

''It's time for the government to step up to the plate and recognize that the political situation in Haiti is tenuous at best, and Haitians [who] are subjected to deportation in the immediate future are genuinely in fear for their lives,'' said Miami immigration attorney Cheryl Little, who is working with several other groups from around the country to prepare the request.

``Haiti is our neighbor. We have a very large Haitian community in the U.S. which is able and willing to provide ample support to the Haitians who are here.''

Officials from the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service would not comment on the proposed request. As for whether Friday's disturbance would affect the fate of some 200 Haitians who are detained at detention centers in South Florida, that would be up to immigration judges, said John Shewairy, INS's Miami district office chief of staff.

''I can't address that because each case is addressed by an adjudication judge based on its merits,'' he said. Herald staff writer Charles Rabin contributed to this report.

This news article appeared in The Miami Herald of November 23, 2002.

                                                                                                                                                                                          Posted at 2:12 a.m, Saturday, November 23, 2002

Port-au-Prince sets on fire by senior chief bandit Aristide  

By Michael Norton, Associated Press Writer

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti, Nov. 22 (AP) - Hundreds demonstrated outside the National Palace on Friday, saying they stand behind President Jean-Bertrand Aristide and against a rash of recent opposition protests (photos).

Since Nov. 14, tens of thousands of protesters have held seven demonstrations calling for Aristide to step down and calling his government corrupt and inefficient.

"Aristide, stay your course!" they chanted in the peaceful demonstration, in which they accused Haiti's opposition of trying to unseat the elected government.

On Friday, smoke billowed from flaming tire barricades in Port-au-Prince as sporadic gunfire rang out and some people threw rocks at passing vehicles. No one was reported seriously injured, but the disturbances blocked buses and closed schools, businesses and government buildings.

Many people stayed away from work, and traffic was light on the capital's streets. There was no visible police presence in many parts of the city.

Some government supporters littered the ground with fliers accusing the international community of plotting against Haiti's sovereignty.

"We have tried to restrain our troops, but they are unable to refrain from expressing their frustration at the way the opposition is blocking the country," said Jonas Petit, acting head of Aristide's governing Lavalas Family party.

Petit said the opposition risks driving the country to a violent confrontation.

"We've risen to say no" to calls for Aristide's resignation, said Rene Civil, a chief of grass-roots Aristide backers. He denied, however, that his partisans were shooting and throwing rocks.

The disturbances came days after tens of thousands protested in Cap-Haitien, the second largest city, to call for an alternative to Aristide's government.

The demonstration on Sunday was the largest since Aristide was elected to a second five-year term in November 2000.

The government and opposition have been locked in a stalemate since May 2000 elections that observers said were flawed. The elections gave most victories to governing party candidates.

A dispute over the holding of new elections has held up hundreds of millions of dollars in foreign aid, and poverty has since deepened in Haiti, the Western Hemisphere's poorest country.

Copyright © 2002 The Associated Press.

                                                                                                                                                                                          Posted at 9:12 p.m., Thursday, November 21, 2002                                                                                                                                               Thousands of students in Haiti protest shooting of students wounded in Wednesday demonstration  

By Michael Norton, Associated Press Writer

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti, Nov. 21 - Thousands of students in three cities took to the streets Thursday demanding President Jean-Bertrand Aristide's resignation, a day after four students were shot in a clash with authorities.

"Aristide is a criminal! Aristide must go!" high school and university students in the capital chanted, as more than 3,000 marched from the Ministry of Education building to the vicinity of the National Palace (photos).

Along the way, the students dispersed a pro-government demonstration with a hail of rocks. No injuries or arrests were reported (Loune Viaux receives RFK 2002 human rights award from the Kennedy's family and her brutal dictator cousin, Aristide, continues to murder Haitians).

In Petit-Goave, where the four students were shot and six others were injured Wednesday, more than a thousand high school students under police escort marched through the town calling on Aristide to step down.

Several schools in Gonaives, Haiti's fourth largest city about 110 kilometers (70 miles) northwest of the capital, closed after hundreds of students poured into the streets protesting the Wednesday shooting.

They defiantly lowered the Haitian flag at the Gonaives police station, but police did not retaliate. Later, police did not intervene when a group of heavily-armed Aristide partisans shot into the air and threw rocks at the protesters who quickly dispersed, reported independent Radio Vision 2000.

Government supporters also threatened local reporters covering the event, independent Radio Signal F.M. reported.

Thursday's protests marked the fifth day of anti-government demonstrations since Friday, reflecting a growing antipathy with Aristide's leadership.

On Wednesday, anti-government protesters forced their way into a police station courtyard in provincial Petit-Goave, 70 kilometers (44 miles) west of the capital. A clash resulted, leaving 10 people injured, four of them with gun shot wounds. The gun shot victims were in stable condition.

Witnesses reported that police opened fire on the students, which police deny, saying "infiltrators" among the students were responsible. A Ministry of Interior team was dispatched to investigate the shooting.

The students were demonstrating Wednesday against the high cost of living and a rumored increase in final exam fees. A government communique later denied there was an increase in exam fees. Before invading the police courtyard, the demonstrators lowered the national flags at several public buildings.

Haiti's economic and political stability has deteriorated since May 2000 elections, which observers said were flawed. The elections gave most victories to governing party candidates.

The government and opposition parties have been in a stalemate since then. Failure to agree on new elections has held up hundreds of millions of dollars in foreign aid, and poverty has deepened in Haiti, the Western Hemisphere's poorest country.

Copyright © 2002 The Associated Press.

                                                                                                                                                                                         Posted at 2:48 p.m., Wednesday, November 20, 2002                                                                                                                                              Totalitarian dictator Aristide's thugs fatally shot ten students

By Michael Norton, Associated Press Writer

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti, Nov. 20 - Anti-government protesters forced their way into a police station courtyard in provincial Petit-Goave on Wednesday, prompting a clash with authorities that left 10 people injured, four with gunshot wounds, news reports said (photos:students protest; Tyrant Aristide's cousin, Loine Viaux, receives RFK Human Rights Award 2002).

The clash happened as thousands of mostly high school students demonstrated against the high cost of living and increased school exam fees in the town.

The protesters also called for President Jean-Bertrand Aristide to resign. It was the fourth major demonstration since Friday, reflecting a growing breach of confidence in the president's leadership.

The four people shot were in stable condition, a hospital administrator told independent Radio Metropole. It was unclear how the other six were injured or what condition they were in.

The four gunshot victims were high-school students and were wearing school uniforms, independent Radio Vision 2000 reported.

Witnesses said police opened fire on the protesters, but police denied the claims, the reports said.

The students were peaceful for the most part, but "infiltrators" among them opened fire, said a duty officer who did not want to be identified.

Crowd-control police were dispatched to patrol the town, but made no arrests.

"The population is at bay," said Jean Limongy, an opposition politician and private school principal in Petit-Goave, 70 kilometers (44 miles) west of the capital.

"The decision to raise the final exam fee from 20 gourdes ($US0.60) to 750 gourdes ($21) was the last straw for the hungry students."

A government communique later denied there was an increase in exam fees. Before invading the police courtyard, the demonstrators lowered the national flags at several public buildings.

The students also demanded justice for slain journalist Brignol Lindor, who was ambushed and hacked to death on Dec. 3, 2001, after allowing opposition politicians speak on his evening talk show program.

On Monday, thousands poured into the streets of Petit-Goave also calling for justice in the Lindor case.

Ten members of a pro-Aristide grass-roots group have been indicted for the slaying, which happened just outside the town.

On Sunday in Cap-Haitien, Haiti's second largest city, tens of thousands called for an alternative to Aristide's allegedly corrupt and inefficient government. The demonstration — which included business leaders and politicians, workers and unemployed — was the largest since Aristide was elected to a second five-year term in November 2000.

On Friday, thousands of university students and professors stormed the administrative offices of Haiti's State University in the capital and symbolically reinstated the school's administrative board, which the government had removed in July.

Haiti's economic and political stability has deteriorated since May 2000 elections, which observers said were flawed. The elections gave most victories to governing party candidates.

The government and opposition parties have been in a stalemate since then. Failure to agree on new elections has held up hundreds of millions of dollars in foreign aid, and poverty has deepened in Haiti, the Western Hemisphere's poorest country. (mn-fg/kd)

Copyright © 2002 The Associated Press

                                                                                                                                                                                    Critics doubt Haiti vow to disarm political gangs  

By Marika Lynch, Miami Herald Writer                                                                                                    mlynch@herald.com

TARGETED: Deus Jean-Francois, an opposition leader, says a gang linked to President Jean-Bertrand Aristide destroyed his home. DANIEL MOREL/AP

PETIT-GOAVE, Haiti, Nov. 19 -- After the mayor put him on a target list and the journalist who interviewed him was slashed to death, a mob came for Deus Jean-Francois' home (photos).

The armed vigilantes -- a crew that allegedly included a police officer and a politician's bodyguard -- burned the house to rubble and shot Francois' 20-year-old son in the shoulder. The lawyer and opposition party leader blames ''Asleep in the Woods,'' a political gang linked to President Jean-Bertrand Aristide's Lavalas party.

The armed episode wasn't unusual because Haiti has been awash in weapons for years, but now that Aristide has pledged to the international community to disarm violent groups, the government is making a show of collecting guns.

Critics, however, say it's just that -- a show, with the most dangerous vigilante groups still free to carry weapons and threaten government opponents. The Haitian government started with radio ads and spot car and home searches. A weapons buy-back program didn't yield a single gun.

Weapons-toting gangs remain and are seen as Aristide's political enforcers, threatening to cause problems during next year's proposed elections.

''The Aristide government has no interest in disarming these people, his people,'' said Gerard Pierre-Charles, a former Aristide ally turned opposition leader. ``He would lose his image as an all-powerful leader.''

The government knows where the guns are because its supporters distributed them, the opposition says. They point to an OAS report that found that after Uzi-bearing commandos stormed the National Palace last December, some government and party workers distributed weapons, and even transported supporters in official vehicles to attack opposition members, party headquarters and homes.

The attacks were premeditated, said the report by the Organization of American States. Though the report implicates government officials and gang leaders, not one has been arrested.

Last week, the government announced it had seized 2,500 weapons, including 432 Uzis. But many remain skeptical because the government didn't show its yield.

Prime Minister Yvon Neptune has asked the OAS for technical assistance, and the government insists the political gangs, or so-called popular organizations, will be targeted, along with everyone else who has an unregistered gun.

''There are a lot of weapons out there in a lot of different sectors, not only in the popular organizations,'' Interior Minister Jocelerme Privert said. ``We intend to get all of those weapons.''

OFFICIALS' WEAPONS

Yet they may not be able to touch the illegal guns carried for the party's own elected officials. Last week, Aristide reminded parliament members, known for being surrounded by their own armed entourage, that they too must obey gun laws. Yet while police spokesman Jean Dady Simeon says the force knows some of the bodyguards have illegal weapons, neither they nor the elected officials can be inspected, or have their guns taken away, he said.

''It's up to them to conform to the law,'' Simeon said.

Disarmament has dogged Aristide's government since the former parish priest was restored to power in 1994, after a coup. The United States, which then occupied Haiti in a peacekeeping mission, pledged to weed out illegal guns. Despite Aristide's insistence, the forces didn't follow through. So when the Haitian military was disbanded in 1995, soldiers simply took their weapons home.

Illegal weapons proliferated through criminal networks and the drug trade. In the Western Hemisphere's poorest nation, guns have meant political power, currency and also security. Crime troubles residents, and Haiti has a small national police force, 5,000 officers for eight million people.

As part of a compromise that unlocked international aid, Haiti pledged to the OAS that it would disarm. A coalition of civic, church and human rights groups and the opposition want to hold up elections until it starts.

At a two-day disarmament seminar last month, the OAS suggested a few routes for the government: setting up an independent commission to lead and verify disarmament and assure confiscated weapons don't return to criminals' hands; an amnesty for people who hand in arms; a pilot disarmament project in a certain area to test methods.

So far, disarmament hasn't reached Petit-Goave, a coastal town known for its sweet pink and brown caramels, and political divisiveness.

'TERRORIST' LIST

Last year, after Aristide announced a zero-tolerance policy for criminals, the then-deputy mayor read a list of names of people considered ''terrorists,'' and to whom the zero-tolerance policy should be applied. On the list was the opposition leader whose house was burned, Jean-Francois, and radio journalist Brignol Lindor, who had interviewed government foes on his show. Days later, Lindor was killed by machete and hatchet slashes. Ten members of the political gang ''Asleep in the Woods'' were indicted in September.

When violence broke out Dec. 17, 2001, after the attack on the National Palace, 18 homes were ransacked in town, two belonging to Lavalas members. The rest belonged to the opposition.

Both the opposition and the Lavalas party have armed wings here, said Mayor Luc Francois, who says he belongs to neither party.

''Usually it is said that the Lavalas group is more violent, but that is normal because they are in power,'' Francois said. He sat beneath a folk painting of a mob burning a man to death by placing a flaming tire around him. Above his head, the artist writes as if asking, ''porquoi?'' or ``Why?''

                                                                                                                                                                                         Posted at 11:50 p.m., Monday, November 18, 2002                                                                                                                                                Thousands in provincial Haitian city demand justice for slain journalist, totalitarian dictator Aristide's resignation  

By Michael Norton, Associated Press Writer

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti, Nov. 18 - Thousands poured into the streets of provincial Petit-Goave on Monday, demanding justice for slain journalist Brignol Lindor and calling for the resignation of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, news reports said (photos)

Marching under police protection through streets and down the highway, as many as 8,000 protesters chanted "Down with Aristide!" and "Justice for Brignol!" the independent Radio Vision 2000 reported.

The protest followed one day after tens of thousands marched in north-coast Cap-Haitien to protest Aristide's allegedly antidemocratic government — reflecting a growing crisis of confidence in the president's leadership.

Police patrolled Petit-Goave on Monday and dispersed a counter demonstration of about 30 Aristide partisans to prevent any possible clash (sports news).

Lindor was ambushed and hacked to death on Dec. 3, 2001, after allowing opposition politicians to speak on his evening talk show program.

Ten members of a pro-Aristide grass-roots group have been indicted for the slaying, which happened just outside Petit-Goave, about 70 kilometers (44 miles) west of the capital.

Human rights groups, however, have protested the fact that Petit-Goave's pro-Aristide mayor, Bony Dume, was not indicted, even though he had publicly accused Lindor of being a "terrorist" and urged government supporters to implement a "zero tolerance" policy against him.

Monday's demonstration against Aristide was the latest of several anti-government protests in Haiti this week.

In Cap-Haitien on Sunday, tens of thousands called for an alternative to Aristide's allegedly corrupt and inefficient government. The demonstration — which included business leaders and politicians, workers and unemployed — was the largest since Aristide was elected to a second five-year term in November 2000.

On Friday, thousands of university students and professors stormed the administrative offices of Haiti's State University in the capital and symbolically reinstated the school's administrative board, which the government had removed in July.

Haiti's economic and political stability has deteriorated since May 2000 elections, which observers said were flawed, gave most victories to governing party candidates.

The government and opposition parties have been in a stalemate since, with the opposition saying the vote was rigged.

Failure to agree on new elections has held up hundreds of millions of dollars in foreign aid. In the meantime, poverty in the Western Hemisphere's poorest country has deepened. (mn-kd)

Copyright © 2002 The Associated Press.

                                                                                                                                                                                          FBI nabs Haitian man carrying handgun and 50 bullets

By The Associated Press

MIAMI, Nov. 17 - A Haitian man has been arrested for attempting to board a flight from Miami to Haiti while allegedly carrying a handgun and 50 bullets hidden in a DVD player, authorities said.

Andre Riguens, who is a legal U.S resident, was being held Sunday at the federal detention center in Miami pending an initial appearance in federal court Monday, said FBI spokeswoman Judy Orihuela.

Riguens was arrested Saturday at Miami International Airport before boarding an American Airlines flight to Port-au-Prince, the Haitian capital, she said.

A security screener found the gun after stopping Riguens for a second look at his carryon luggage, Orihuela said.

Inside the bag, the screener found a DVD player that held the handgun and ammunition, which were wrapped in foil and duct tape.

"He said he needed it for protection in Haiti," said Orihuela.

Riguens, 33, was charged with attempting to carry a weapon onto an airplane.

Orihuela said Riguens drove to Miami from Jonesboro, Ga., and that he lives in Georgia with his wife, a U.S. citizen. 

                                                                                                                                                                                           Posted at 2:20 p.m, Monday, November 18, 2002

Tens of thousands Haitians protest for Haiti drug dealer, totalitarian, radical leftist and chief bandit de facto President's resignation

By Michael Deibert, Reuters Writer

CAP HAITIEN, Haiti, Nov. 17 (Reuters) - Thousands took the streets of Haiti's second-largest city on Sunday to demand the resignation of the country's embattled president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide (photos).

The march, sponsored by a local umbrella-organization known as the Citizens Initiative, began at the city's center and continued on through the historic city gates, increasing manifold as it went along. Police sources estimated the crowd at around 8,000 people.

As the march progressed, with opposition politicians, former members of the Haitian military and civil society figures at its head, thousands of ordinary citizens spilled out of the city's populous slums to join in chants of "Down with Aristide" and "Down with Lavalas criminals," a reference to Aristide's ruling Lavalas Family political party. Others smiled and clapped, pumping their fists from rooftops and balconies.

"Aristide is a thief!" some shouted. "Send him to prison!"

"We want Aristide to leave because he has given us nothing, no work, no rice, only hunger," said a frail peasant man from the nearby hamlet of San Raphael, lifting up his shirt to show his emaciated rib cage.

The marchers then scaled a monument commemorating an historic battle in the city where rebellious Haitians defeated colonial French forces in 1803, raising the Haitian flag as march organizers addressed the cheering throng.

"All those who want to build hope for the country, raise their hand; all those who want to get rid of Aristide, raise their hand; all those who want to respect human rights, raise their hand!" shouted Evans Paul, an opposition politician, to the thunderous applause of the crowd assembled.

Paul, a member of the Democratic Convergence opposition coalition and former mayor of the capital, Port-au-Prince, continued: "We will fight against dictatorship, we will fight for liberty! Citizens alongside citizens, without division, without violence."

SECOND PROTEST IN THREE DAYS

The march proceeded under police protection, and the heavily outfitted riot officers were cheered by the crowd at the march's end.

"We thank the Haitian National Police for providing security for the people today," said Himmler Robu, a former officer in the army that ousted Aristide in a military coup in 1991. Aristide disbanded the army when he was returned to power by a U.S.-led multinational force in 1994. "The struggle begins today, and it requires intelligence, determination and a clear head," Robu said.

The protest comes on the heels of a large march in the capital Friday by university students protesting against what they said was the government's interference in the country's state university system.

The students stormed and occupied the university's rectory, then marched to the gates of the National Palace, demanding Aristide's resignation and new elections.

Aristide began his second term as Haiti's president in February 2001 and has since been locked in a two-year dispute with the Convergence coalition over May 2000 legislative elections that his opponents contend were biased to favor Aristide's Lavalas party.

The deadlock has stalled over $500 million in international aid.

Inflation in Haiti has risen 16%, and the Haitian currency, the gourde, has lost 40% of value in the past year.

A pyramid investment scheme collapsed last summer, wiping out the life savings of tens of thousands of Haitians and a rumor that the cash-strapped government was planning to convert dollar bank accounts to the Haitian currency at a low rate recently resulted in a run on banks that saw depositors withdraw $20 million in three days.

The country has also seen a marked increase in political violence over the past year, including an attack by unidentified commandos on the National Palace, anti-government riots in the capital and elsewhere, and increased threats to press freedom by government supporters.

Copyright © 2002 Reuters Limited.

                                                                                                                                                    Security cited in halting Haitians, INS: Entry by sea could aid terrorists  

By Alfonso Chardy Miami Herald Writer                                                                                                  chardy@herald.com 

The throb of an idling speedboat engine drew the attention of kayaking friends near Key Biscayne one night almost two years ago. When they paddled closer, the kayakers saw about 20 Haitians wading ashore.

When the boat's skipper realized he was being watched, he revved the engine and took off, five or 10 migrants still aboard, according to one of the kayakers, Tom Logue, an attorney in Miami.

U.S. immigration authorities see this kind of undetected sea arrival by undocumented migrants as a threat to national security. The concern lies at the core of a 10-page legal brief that attorneys for the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service have filed in immigration court in Miami suggesting that terrorists could use Haiti as a ''staging point'' to reach the United States, taking advantage of the boat trips by illegal Haitian migrants.

But some antiterrorism experts voice skepticism at the possibility that terrorists would use Haiti as a way station to the United States.

''Haiti is not an Islamic country and would not have a favorable environment for such terrorists,'' said Vincent Cannistraro, an antiterrorism expert who once worked at the CIA and the National Security Council. ``Terrorists would be better off hiding in Cuba and jumping on a boat to get to the U.S.''

The fear of leaving open a path for terrorists is part of the Justice Department's rationale for applying tough detention and deportation policies to Haitian migrants -- including more than 200 who arrived at the Rickenbacker Causeway Oct. 29. Officials also hope to discourage other Haitians from fleeing that country by boat for U.S. shores.

Large boatloads, like the one Oct. 29 trip, are ultimately detected -- even if it's not until arrival. But smaller vessels carrying fewer passengers often make it to shore undetected. Immigration investigators estimate that it happens often, perhaps even weekly, when the weather is good. ''It's a vast ocean,'' said Tony Russell, a U.S. Coast Guard spokesman in Miami. Ira Kurzban, a Miami immigration attorney who represents the Haitian government, said the concern raised in the INS brief is ''frivolous,'' especially since it does not provide specific evidence.

''It's not supported with anything,'' Kurzban said. ``It's just bald assertions. They can tie everything to the issue of national security, but it's clear that Haitians have not posed and do not now pose any threat to national security.''

While the brief does not specifically mention terrorists, it alludes to concerns about illegal migration from Haiti within the context of ''homeland security'' and the aftermath of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

NOTED NATIONALITIES

The brief specifically lists Pakistanis and Palestinians as foreign nationals who may be using Haiti as a jumping-off point for illegal entry into the United States.

Since Sept. 11, arriving Pakistanis and Palestinians have drawn increased scrutiny at borders and international airports as potential terror suspects.

A congressional aide familiar with U.S. intelligence reports said the Senate Intelligence Committee had received sketchy information about the presence of Pakistanis and Palestinians in Haiti but had no other details.

However, a senior State Department official recently told a congressional panel that diplomats had noticed illegal Pakistani migrants in the Dominican Republic -- which shares the island of Hispaniola with Haiti -- who might be trying to reach U.S. shores.

Chief among the concerns cited in the INS brief is the fear that releasing the Haitians would trigger an exodus of illegal Haitian migrants and divert Coast Guard resources from other responsibilities. But a secondary concern, the brief says, is national security.

''In the post-September 11 atmosphere of homeland security, there are serious concerns that the United States government needs to know more about the people who reach our borders, including our sea borders,'' the brief says.

'Indeed, the State Department notes that it has `noticed an increase in third country nations [Pakistanis, Palestinians, etc.] using Haiti as a staging point for attempted migration to the United States. This increases the national security interest in curing use of this migration route.' ''

Mario Ortíz, an INS spokesman in Miami, said the passage does not mean American officials view Pakistanis and Palestinians as synonymous with terrorists. But Ortíz said one of the INS' concerns is not knowing precisely the backgrounds of foreign nationals who unexpectedly arrive by boat without visas.

''Typically people who are undocumented are of grave concern to those of us charged with the responsibility of controlling immigration at our borders,'' Ortíz said.

Otto Reich, assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere affairs, recently alluded to Pakistanis in connection with illegal immigration from the Dominican Republic.

REICH'S TESTIMONY

Testifying Oct. 10 before the House Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere, Reich said the United States was concerned about ``illegal immigration from the Dominican Republic to the United States, both of Dominicans and of third-country nationals, such as Haitians, Chinese and Pakistanis.''

Federal immigration investigators in the past have cited the use of Caribbean islands and South American countries as transit points for alien-smuggling networks.

Interviews with several Middle Eastern men who were briefly held at the Krome detention center in West Miami-Dade in the immediate aftermath of Sept. 11 showed they had traveled through Cuba and Peru to get to the United States by plane with fake documents.

                                                                                                                                                                                          Posted at 10:12 p.m., Saturday, November 16, 2002

An anti-totalitarian dictator Aristide's demonstration in Cap-Haitien, Sunday Nov. 17 

A march is planned in Cap Haitien this weekend. Signals from the government indicate a confrontation. Foreign reporters heading there to cover it. Haitipolicy.org exclusive.

Cap Haitien Demonstration: Something to Watch project staff, from news reports, 2002-11-15

The Citizens’ Initiative (InitiativeCitoyenne, IC), a youth group, plans to analyze the situation in the country, critique the Lavalas regime, and call for a new departure. Frandley Denis Julien, from the organization, noted the presence of several personalities such as former colonel Himler Rébu, human-rights advocate Jean Claude Bajeux, economist Frantz Vérella, former senator Turneb Delpé, and Convergence leader Evans Paul. The planned demonstration will condemn the government for leaving the country in an untenable situation.

The authorities appear to be taking a dim view of this youth movement’s activities. According to the director of Initiative Citoyenne, the government has spread a rumor that would-be coup plotters are planning to make a move. At the beginning of the week, the police reported an attack on the main police station by unknown armed personnel. The government representative Myrtho Julien said they

                                                                                                                                                                                        Posted at 12:15 a.m., Sturday, November 16, 2002                                                                                                                                                    Haitian student protesters storm university   

By Michael Deibert, Reuters Writer

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Nov. 15 (Reuters) - Shouting "Down with Aristide," thousands of students stormed and occupied the rectory of the State University of Haiti and marched on the National Palace on Friday, escalating protests against alleged government interference in education (photos).

A student march on Wednesday surrounded parliament to protest against President Jean-Bertrand Aristide and Education Minister Myrtho Celestin Saurel's July decision to delay student elections and fire the university vice chancellor.

Celestin Saurel has since named an interim vice chancellor to prepare for a new university election this month.

After seizing the university building, the crowd, joined by market women and high school students, went to the National Palace in downtown Port-au-Prince where they climbed the front gates shouting "Down with criminals!" and "We don't want Lavalas!" -- a reference to Aristide's Lavalas Family party.

"The government enacted the situation which brought about the action you see today," said agronomy student Jean David, as fellow students waved Haitian flags and pictures of Argentine-born revolutionary Che Guevara.

"While Aristide and Lavalas want to control everything, our country is dying."

Already the poorest country in the Americas, Haiti has been battered by economic woes since Aristide began his second term in February 2001. Inflation has risen 16 percent and the gourde currency has lost 40 percent of its value in the last year.

A pyramid investment scheme collapsed last summer and wiped out the life savings of tens of thousands and a recent rumor that the cash-strapped government was planning to convert bank accounts held in U.S. dollars to Haitian currency at a low rate resulted in depositors withdrawing $20 million in three days.

Another anti-government protest is set for Sunday in the northern city of Cap-Haitien.

Timed to coincide with a historic defeat of colonial French forces in the city in 1803, the march is expected to attract thousands of opposition politicians, students, journalists and rights activists dissatisfied with what they characterize as Aristide's corrupt and violent tenure.

Restored to power by U.S. troops nearly a decade ago, Aristide was overwhelmingly elected to a second term as president in November 2000, but has since been locked in a dispute over May 2000 legislative elections, which his opponents contend were biased to favor Aristide's party.

The deadlock has stalled over $500 million in international aid.

                                                                                                                                                    British warship seizes six marijuana bales bound for Haiti and detains four in Caribbean sea

KINGSTON, Jamaica, Nov. 15 - A British warship conducting anti-drug operations in the Caribbean Sea seized six bales of marijuana and detained four people, the British Royal Navy said Friday.

The HMS Grafton was on routine patrol late Thursday when one of the ship's helicopters detected a fast-moving speedboat traveling from Jamaica toward Haiti, said British Royal Navy Lt. Cmdr. Donald Walker.

The speedboat tried to escape but blew an engine, while its occupants dumped six bales overboard, Walker said. The four eventually surrendered, the navy said. Their nationalities weren't immediately available.

The ship's crew recovered six of the 12 marijuana bales, worth about 3 million pounds (US$4.7 million), Walker said.

The seizure was the third involving the Grafton since the frigate sailed from its home port of Portsmouth, England, in July to participate in anti-drug operations in the Caribbean, the navy said.

The Grafton's crew has seized over 111 million pounds ($174 million) worth of drugs since it arrived. The frigate also rescued a castaway who spent 26 days adrift in the Caribbean Sea without food or water. 

                                                                                                                                                                                        Posted at 2:45 p.m, Friday, Novemver 15, 2002

Political thugs target Haiti journalists, says Amnesty International

In London story headlined "Political thugs target Haiti journalists-report", please read in paragraph one...of journalism in the country...instead of...of journalism on the island (correcting to make clear Haiti not itself an island) A corrected repetition follows.

LONDON, Nov 15 (Reuters) - Threats and violence against reporters in Haiti endanger the "critical role" of journalism in the country, Amnesty International said in a report on Friday.

Reporters in the impoverished Caribbean nation have been attacked and investigations into murders of journalists are often slow and incomplete, the human rights group said.

"Failure to investigate thoroughly these and other serious attacks...sends a dangerous message that journalists are legitimate targets," Amnesty said in a statement.

The statement cites the so-far inconclusive investigation into the 2001 killing of radio journalist Brignol Lindor, whose local mayor at the time called for "zero tolerance" against him on the grounds he supported an opposition party.

Lindor's family have appealed against a decision not to indict the then mayor. Haiti has witnessed a marked increase in political violence this year including an attack on the National Palace and anti-government riots.

President Jean-Bertrand Aristide has been locked in a dispute with the opposition coalition over elections that his opponents say were biased to favour Aristide's party.

The fledgling democracy has repeatedly stated its commitment to upholding freedom of _expression, but the conditional nature of that support casts doubt on the government's sincerity, Amnesty said.

                                                                                                                                                                                          Posted at 9:30 p.m., Thursday, November 14, 2002                                                                                                                                                 Protesting Haitian students march on de facto parliament  

By Michael Deibert, Reuters Writer

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti, Nov 13 (Reuters) - Beating on traditional voodoo drums, hundreds of students from the State University of Haiti marched on parliament on Wednesday, protesting what they called government interference in the education system (Photos).

"Democracy yes! Dictatorship no!" the students chanted as they waved signs reading: "Long Live Autonomy."

Many students said they were marching because they saw the university as a bulwark against the ambitions of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, the former Roman Catholic priest who in February 2001 began his second term as leader of the impoverished Caribbean nation of 8 million people.

"We are here to protest against the growing threat of dictatorship in our country as represented by the actions of the Aristide government at the university," philosophy student Guimy Telot said.

Trouble began at the school last July when Education Minister Myrtho Celestin Saurel dismissed Vice Chancellor Pierre Marie Paquiot and delayed student and faculty elections after a hunger strike by students loyal to the government.

The move was met with outrage by many students, who charged the government was attempting to take control of the school and that their education was being controlled by a small number of well-connected political activists.

Paquiot, whose term had expired before his dismissal, has been replaced by an interim vice chancellor, Charles Tadieu, in preparation for new university elections to be held later this month.

A subsequent sit-in in July in front of the offices of the education minister was attacked by govern