HAITI: CROWD OF ANTI-GOVERNMENT PROTESTERS VIOLENTLY CHASED AWAY BY THOUSANDS OF SUPPORTERS OF PRESIDENT JEAN-BERTRAND ARISTIDE

Record ID: 646867

  • Title: HAITI: CROWD OF ANTI-GOVERNMENT PROTESTERS VIOLENTLY CHASED AWAY BY THOUSANDS OF SUPPORTERS OF PRESIDENT JEAN-BERTRAND ARISTIDE
  • Date: 5th December 2002
  • Summary: (U7)PORT AU PRINCE, HAITI (DECEMBER 3, 2002) (REUTERS) 1. SLV CROWDS AND ARMED MEN RUNNING AND DEMONSTRATING IN FRONT OF PALACE; SLV ARMED MEN WALKING WITH DETAINED MEN (3 SHOTS) 0.24 2. SLV PRO-GOVERNMENT DEMONSTRATORS WALKING WITH POSTERS OF PRESIDENT ARISTIDE 0.28 3. MV/SLV ANTI-GOVERNMENT PROTESTERS TRYING TO GET IN CARS AND DRIVE OFF SURROUNDED BY PRO-ARISTIDE PROTESTERS; CROWDS AND ARMED MEN RALLYING IN STREETS (8 SHOTS) 1.29 4. SLV PEOPLE THROWING THEMSELVES TO GROUND AS SHOTS ARE FIRED AND THEN STANDING AND CHEERING 1.45 5. SLV PEOPLE RALLYING IN STREET HOLDING POSTERS OF PRESIDENT ARISTIDE IN FRONT OF PRESIDENTIAL PALACE 2.00 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
  • Embargoed: 20th December 2002 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: PORT AU PRINCE, HAITI
  • Country: Haiti
  • Reuters ID: LVA38GJE502J2CCGCTP33B7E6D28
  • Story Text: A small crowd of anti-government protesters in Haiti
    has been violently chased away by thousands of supporters of
    President Aristide.

    Several thousand supporters of Haiti's President
    Jean-Bertrand Aristide chased away anti-Aristide demonstrators
    with stones and bottles and hit them with metal bars in
    Port-au-Prince on Tuesday (December 3).

    The unrest, the latest in a series of demonstrations and
    counter-protests to hit the impoverished Caribbean nation,
    took place on the anniversary of the murder of a Haitian
    journalist whose death, allegedly at the hands of Aristide
    supporters, was one of the sparks for growing opposition to
    the president.

    Hundreds of anti-Aristide marchers demonstrating near the
    American embassy in the downtown Port-au-Prince were stopped
    by a much larger crowd of young Aristide supporters. No
    serious injuries were reported.

    An anti-government march in the northern city of Cap
    Haitian was also broken up violently, private Radio Metropole
    reported. Several hundred students also marched against the
    government in the southern city of Jacmel, residents said.

    Haiti, the poorest country in the Americas, has been hit
    in the last few weeks by a tide of protests as opposition and
    student groups demonstrate over a deteriorating economy and
    what they charge is government corruption and Aristide's
    increasingly authoritarian rule.

    A former Roman Catholic priest, Aristide rallied Haiti's
    poor at the end a 30-year dictatorship in the mid-1980's and
    was first elected president in 1990, only to be overthrown in
    a military coup seven months later.

    U.S. troops helped restore him to power in 1994, then he
    handed power to hand-picked successor Rene Preval in 1996. He
    won a second five-year term as president in November but since
    returning to office has been mired in a dispute with
    Democratic Convergence opposition coalition over contested May
    2000 legislative elections. The deadlock has stalled over 500
    million US Dollars in much needed foreign aid and Haiti's 8 million
    people have seen prices soar and their currency slump over the
    past year.

    Members of the political opposition said they planned a
    general strike on Wednesday (December 4) to try to help push
    Aristide from power. The president has said he has no plans to
    step down.


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