Haitian capital rocked by new unrest as police break up pro-Aristide demo

[I AM SPARTACUS]

Source: Agence France-Presse (AFP)
Date: 11 Mar 2004

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Haitian capital rocked by new unrest as police break up pro-Aristide demo

by Patrick Moser
http://www.reliefweb.int/w/rwb.nsf/480fa8736b88bbc3c12564f6004c8ad5/7d4a0cf9b31c5bc985256e54007028c8?OpenDocument

PORT-AU-PRINCE, March 11 (AFP) - Haitian police fired tear gas to disperse followers of former president Jean Bertrand Aristide outside the presidential palace on Thursday, sparking riots in the capital.

Loyalists of Aristide, who resigned and fled to Africa on February 29, got as far as the gates of the presidential palace when police stepped in.

Volleys of automatic gunfire were then heard and crowds then rampaged, vandalising cars and setting up barricades with the wrecks and burning tyres in the Bel Air slum district.

One woman was taken to hospital with a bullet wound to the right arm.

"I was shot by the police," Nadia Joseph, 19, told AFP as a motorist took her to hospital with a bullet lodged in her arm.
<snip...more>

"I was in the demonstration when I was shot," Joseph said.

[whistle]

1. Boy, this is turning into a mess...

...who's job is it to keep foreign policy in some kind of order? Is that Condi's job? Where is she?

[I AM SPARTACUS]

2. LOL

[I AM SPARTACUS]

3. Update - two killed...

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-Haiti.html

Two Killed at Pro - Aristide Rally in Haiti
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Filed at 1:44 a.m. ET

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) -- A shootout between police and protesters killed two men and injured seven during a demonstration in support of Jean-Bertrand Aristide Thursday as the exiled Haitian president planned a return to the Caribbean.

The violence erupted as hundreds of protesters marched through the Belair neighborhood of Port-au-Prince yelling ``Aristide has to come back! We don't want Bush as president!''

Shots were fired and some protesters pulled out pistols. Police fired tear gas, and a shootout between protesters and police ensued, witnesses said.

Two young men were killed, and seven others were being treated for shotgun wounds, hospital officials said.

U.S. Marines, who are in Haiti to try to restore order, said they were patrolling near the protest but had nothing to do with the shootout

[eablair3]

4. the spin is on, as usual

Haitian police fired tear gas to disperse followers of former president Jean Bertrand Aristide outside the presidential palace ...

Now, who are the "Haitian police"? I mean, wasn't the Haitian police last week opposed to the so-called "opposition rebels" and weren't they defending Aristide's government against them? Weren't the "Haitian police" supposedly underarmed? I guess the "opposition rebels" are now the "Haitian police"?

Loyalists of Aristide, who resigned and fled to Africa on February 29 ...

translation: "resigned and fled" is used in place of "forcibly removed in a coup before being kidnapped and held as a prisoner in some remote central african country ruled by a dictator beholden to the U.S. and France"

[truthspeaker]

5. We hate them for their freedom