Haitians want Aristide back
2004-05-19 11:00
Port-Au-Prince, Haiti - Thousands of demonstrators called for the return of ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide on Tuesday during a Flag Day rally that turned violent when riot police fired warning shots and tear gas.
At least one man was killed in the incident.
Waving flags and carrying umbrellas bearing Aristide's face, the demonstrators marched from the pro-Aristide stronghold of Belair toward the National Palace, just blocks away from a cathedral where interim President Boniface Alexandre was attending a Mass.
As the protesters neared the cathedral, riot police fired tear gas and then warning shots to disperse the crowd, which reacted by pelting government vehicles with rocks.
Demonstrator Titus Simpton, 23, was shot and killed. It was unclear who fired the fatal shot, and police were not immediately available for comment.
US Marines helped the police by conducting patrols but did not fire any rounds, according to Col. David Lapan, a spokesperson for the US-led multinational force that will be replaced by a UN force. Peacekeepers and international police are scheduled to start arriving on June 1.
Aristide claims that the United States forced him to resign amid a spreading three-week revolt on February 29, a claim the United States denies.
The 15-nation Caribbean Community, which has refused to recognise Haiti's interim government because of the allegations that Aristide has made, has asked the Organisation of American States to investigate the circumstances of Aristide's departure.
Aristide is in Jamaica with his wife and two daughters but is expected to arrive soon in South Africa, where he has been given temporary asylum. He fled Haiti for the Central African Republic but left within two weeks for Jamaica, about 161km from Haiti.
Leaders of the Caribbean Community, based in Guyana, wanted the investigation conducted by the UN Security Council, but they dropped the request on the assumption that France and the United States would use their veto powers to halt such an inquiry.
"We demand that Aristide return!" said Natjoska Jean-Baptiste, a resident of Belair who said the neighbourhood has suffered power outages and neglect since Aristide left.
Tuesday's demonstration was related to Flag Day, which marks May 18, 1803, when rebel leaders meeting in coastal Arcahaie chose Jean-Jacques Dessalines to succeed their former leader Toussaint Louverture, who had died a month earlier in a French dungeon.
- AP