HAITI: AT LEAST FOUR KILLED AS SHOOTING BREAKS OUT WHILE THOUSANDS CELEBRATE END OF ARISTIDE REIGN IN HAITI

Record ID: 324540

  • Title: HAITI: AT LEAST FOUR KILLED AS SHOOTING BREAKS OUT WHILE THOUSANDS CELEBRATE END OF ARISTIDE REIGN IN HAITI
  • Date: 7th March 2004
  • Summary: (W8) PORT-AU-PRINCE, HAITI (MARCH 07, 2004) (REUTERS) 1. SV OF DEMONSTRATORS ARGUING (2 SHOTS) 0.10 2. SLV/SV OF POLICE ARRIVING AND WALKING THROUGH CROWD OF DEMONSTRATORS (2 SHOTS) 0.22 (U7) PORT-AU-PRINCE, HAITI (MARCH 07, 2004) (REUTERS) 3. SLV OF PEOPLE RUNNING THROUGH STREETS 0.28 (W8) PORT-AU-PRINCE, HAITI (MARCH 07, 2004) (REUTERS) 4. LV/LAS PEOPLE RUNNING THROUGH STREETS (2 SHOTS) 0.39 (U7) PORT-AU-PRINCE, HAITI (MARCH 07, 2004) (REUTERS) 5. SLV OF PEOPLE CARRYING INJURED PERSON 0.52 6. SV INJURED POLICE ON TRUCK 0.57 7. SV POLICE FIRING GUN 0.59 (W8) PORT-AU-PRINCE, HAITI (MARCH 07, 2004) (REUTERS) 8. SLV MAN CRAWLING ON FLOOR 1.05 (U7) PORT-AU-PRINCE, HAITI (MARCH 07, 2004) (REUTERS) 9. SV POLICE POINTING THEIR WEAPONS 1.08 10. SLV PEOPLE RUNNING WITH THEIR HANDS IN THE AIR 1.12 (W8) PORT-AU-PRINCE, HAITI (MARCH 07, 2004) (REUTERS) 11. SLV PEOPLE SHOUTING AT FOREIGN TROOPS 1.16 12. SV FOREIGN TROOPS PATROLLING AREA 1.22 13. SV OF INJURED BEING PUT INTO AMBULANCE/AMBULANCE LEAVING (6 SHOTS) 2.06 14. SV/SLV OF MARINES PATROLLING (2 SHOTS) 2.13 15. LV MARINES PATORLLING 2.19 16. SV FOREIGN TROOPS OUTSIDE HOSPITAL 2.23 17. SV OF INJURED BEING TAKEN INTO HOSPITAL 2.27 18. SV OF INJURED BEING BROUGHT INTO HOSPITAL (4 SHOTS) 2.56 19. SLV FOREIGN TROOPS ARRIVING TO HOSPITAL 2.58 20. SV FOREIGN TROOPS GUARDING ENTRANCE TO HOSPITAL 3.05 21. MCU WOMAN CRYING OUTSIDE HOSPITAL 3.07 22. SV PEOPLE OUTSIDE HOSPITAL SHOUTING AT TROOPS 3.12 23. SV/SLV OF DEAD OUTSIDE PRESIDENTIAL PALACE (3 SHOTS) 3.20 24. SLV FIRE BURNING OUTSIDE PALACE 3.27 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
  • Embargoed: 22nd March 2004 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: PORT-AU-PRINCE, HAITI
  • Country: Haiti
  • Reuters ID: LVA3ZIBGQRVY0DEI20SDDR20B3E5
  • Story Text: At least four killed as shooting breaks out while
    thousands celebrate end of Aristide reign in Haiti.



    Suspected supporters of exiled Haitian President
    Jean-Bertrand Aristide sprayed gunfire into a crowd of
    thousands of jubilant revellers outside the National Palace
    on Sunday (March 07), killing at least four people and
    wounding 19.

    Hospital officials said the dead included Spaniard
    Ricardo Ortega, a correspondent for the Antena 3 Spanish
    television station. A Reuters cameraman said at least four
    other journalists were wounded, including American Michael
    Laughlin of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel. A spokesman for
    the paper said he was shot in face and shoulder.

    Eyewitnesses said gunmen linked to Aristide's Lavalas
    movement fired from rooftops and burst into the capital's
    main square in a pickup truck, a jeep and on foot, shooting
    into a festive crowd celebrating the fall of the president.

    U.S. Marines in the impoverished Caribbean nation
    leading an international peace mission roared to the scene
    in machine gun-mounted Humvees as panicked demonstrators
    ran for cover and military helicopters hovered over the
    palace.

    The shootings, which witnesses said came from
    pro-Aristide neighbourhoods, shattered a largely peaceful
    demonstration in which thousands took to the streets in a
    noisy parade to celebrate the fall of Aristide, who fled to
    Africa on Feb. 29 following a bloody revolt. More than 200
    people have been killed in the month-long rebellion.

    The march, closely watched by U.S. Marines, French
    troops and Haitian National Police in riot gear, came two
    days after thousands of angry supporters of Aristide burst
    out of slums and marched on the U.S. embassy to protest the
    "U.S. occupation" and demand his return.

    In Sunday's march, revellers hoisted Guy Philippe, the
    leader of a ragtag band of rebels who helped oust Aristide,
    on their shoulders, shouting "Philippe, Philippe!" Another
    rebel commander, former death squad chief Louis Jodel
    Chamblain, signed autographs.

    Witnesses said the gunfire erupted from street level and
    from the tops of buildings surrounding the square and many
    blamed Aristide's most militant and ruthless supporters,
    known as the "chimeres." In the wake of the
    shootings,
    the body of a man in a
    blue shirt lay in the Champs de Mars in front of an
    unfinished monument started by Aristide to celebrate the
    200th anniversary of Haiti's independence from France.

    U.S. Marines rushed through the streets in tank-like
    Light Armored Vehicles and pointed rifles at rooftops.

    Wailing relatives and friends packed the Canape Vert
    hospital where most of the wounded were taken.

    The shooting spree brought immediate pleas from
    Aristide's political opponents for international forces to
    disarm the chimeres.

    The U.S., French, Chilean and Canadian forces in Haiti,
    which number about 2,300, had been on high alert on Sunday,
    expecting rival demonstrations. But until the shooting,
    Aristide's supporters had not materialized in the streets.

    A U.S. military official said the Marines were not fired
    upon and did not fire any shots.

    Aristide, a former Roman Catholic priest who became a
    champion of Haiti's impoverished masses when he helped
    overthrow the brutal Duvalier family dictatorship in 1986,
    was ousted by a bloody revolt that killed more than 200
    people and by pressure from the United States and other
    foreign nations.

    From his exile in the Central African Republic, Aristide
    has claimed he was kidnapped by U.S. forces, an allegation
    the U.S. government has denied.

    A council of elders named to help form a new government
    broke from a day long meeting on Saturday (March 06)
    without naming a prime minister, a task expected to be
    completed this week.

    Among the top candidates are Smarck Michel, a
    businessman who served as prime minister in 1994 and 1995
    but ultimately broke with Aristide over differences in
    economic policy, former Haitian army Gen. Herard Abraham,
    former Foreign Minister Gerard Latortue and Axan Abellard
    of the Center for Free Enterprise and Democracy.


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