[A-List] Haiti: Mass Demonstration Against Foreign Occupation, 'Terrorist' Bush

[Rick Rozoff]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=564&ncid=564&e=7&u=/nm/20040305/ts_nm/haiti_dc_166


Reuters
March 5, 2004


Thousands of Aristide Supporters Pour Into Streets   
By Ibon Villelabeitia and Jim Loney 


-Hurling slurs at U.S. Marines and calling President
Bush a "terrorist," a crowd estimated at more than
10,000 materialized in the capital, seething with
anger at Aristide's flight to Africa five days ago
after a bloody rebellion and U.S. pressure. 
-[The protesters] blamed Haiti's wealthy elite, Bush
and French President Jacques Chirac for what they
called the "foreign occupation" of Haiti. 
"The bourgeoisie joined with the international
community to occupy Haiti and get rid of President
Aristide," one demonstrator screamed. "The bourgeoisie
never did anything for us, the masses. Now they took
away our president." 
-"At 6 p.m. we all have to go and find a hole to
hide," said Hubert Louis, 31, referring to the nightly
curfew. "If the foreign troops want to show they want
to support the people, they should protect us from the
soldiers who are chasing us." 



PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (Reuters) - Thousands of
outraged supporters of exiled President Jean-Bertrand
Aristide poured out of Haiti's slums and into the
streets on Friday, marching on the U.S. Embassy to
denounce the "occupation" of their homeland and demand
Aristide's return. 

Hurling slurs at U.S. Marines and calling President
Bush a "terrorist," a crowd estimated at more than
10,000 materialized in the capital, seething with
anger at Aristide's flight to Africa five days ago
after a bloody rebellion and U.S. pressure. 

"Bush terrorist! Bush terrorist!," chanted the crowd,
many of them waving Haitian flags and wearing T-shirts
bearing photos of Aristide, as they passed a
contingent of battle-equipped U.S. Marines guarding
the embassy. 

Hundreds held up their hands with five fingers
extended, shouting "Aristide five years," the rallying
cry of his supporters who wanted him to finish his
five-year term in office. U.S. troops watched
impassively from the rooftop. 

The massive protest came as U.S. and French troops
joined Haitian police on patrol in the teeming
capital. U.S. military vehicles mounted with machine
guns and missile launchers rumbled through the
streets, sending a message to rebels and Aristide
militants to lay down their arms. 

Supporters of Aristide, a former Roman Catholic priest
whose fiery oratory from the pulpit helped galvanize a
popular revolt that dislodged the Duvalier family
dictatorship in the 1980s, had been relatively quiet
this week, shocked by the ouster of Haiti's first
freely elected president. 

They had stayed largely in Cite Soleil, La Saline and
the other slums of Port-au-Prince as the armed rebels
who helped push Aristide from office roamed the
streets, hunting for "chimeres," the most militant of
Aristide's supporters. 

But as the rebels withdrew from the city following a
pledge from their leader, former police chief Guy
Philippe, to lay down their arms, Aristide partisans
vowed to demonstrate daily for the return of their
president. 


"FOREIGN OCCUPATION" 


They blamed Haiti's wealthy elite, Bush and French
President Jacques Chirac for what they called the
"foreign occupation" of Haiti. 

"The bourgeoisie joined with the international
community to occupy Haiti and get rid of President
Aristide," one demonstrator screamed. "The bourgeoisie
never did anything for us, the masses. Now they took
away our president." 

"If Aristide doesn't come back, life will be hell
here." 

Five days after Aristide was ousted by a bloody
rebellion, a new tripartite council made up of people
chosen by the government, Aristide's political foes
and foreign nations went to work. 

Aristide's Minister of Haitians Living Abroad, Leslie
Voltaire, was named by the government. The political
opposition Democratic Platform picked Paul Denis, a
former senator, and the international community chose
Adama Guindo, the United Nations resident coordinator.


The council will select a seven member "Council of
Wise Men" within a week to pick a new prime minister
and begin the process of establishing a new
government. 

Haiti's legislature has been largely defunct since
early January. Only a few senators have time left in
their terms. 

Haitian and foreign officials have been struggling
with the process of installing interim president
Boniface Alexandre, who according to the constitution
must be ratified by the legislature. It was still
uncertain on Friday when a formal swearing in would be
held at the palace. 

U.S., French, Chilean and Canadian troops in Haiti
numbered about 2,000, according to the commanders of
the multinational force approved by the United Nations
to restore order after days of looting and shooting
following Aristide's flight into exile in the Central
African Republic on Sunday. 

More than 100 people died in the armed revolt that
began on Feb. 5 when an anti-Aristide gang took over
the northwestern city of Gonaives. 

Aristide said from his African exile that he was
kidnapped. The U.S. government has denied the
allegation but residents of Aristide strongholds
believe it. 

In the pro-Aristide Port-au-Prince neighborhood of
Bellair, where glass and debris litters the streets
and the stench of sewage hangs in the air, residents
said foreign troops should help protect them from
gunmen that raid the area nightly. 

They say rebels have been conducting reprisal raids. 

"At 6 p.m. we all have to go and find a hole to hide,"
said Hubert Louis, 31, referring to the nightly
curfew. "If the foreign troops want to show they want
to support the people, they should protect us from the
soldiers who are chasing us." (Additional reporting by
Joseph Guyler Delva) 




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