News
Hot point
Protest and violence in
Port-au-Prince
Haitian
Students Call for President's Ouster
December
11 10.07 East
|
|
 ort-au-Prince__Thousands
of students and others took to the streets to call for the
resignation of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide on Thursday,
staging one of the largest political demonstrations in Haiti
this year.
|
Demonstrators, mostly university students, marched for about five
hours, interrupted occasionally by tear gas from riot police and an
onslaught of rocks, cans, bricks and bottles thrown by Aristide
supporters. Demonstrators occasionally threw objects back but no
injuries or arrests were reported.
The demonstrators blamed Aristide for violence against protesters
at earlier marches, and accused the president of
various crimes.
The crowd tried to pass in front of the National Palace, where a
few dozen Aristide supporters awaited them. Riot police lined up
between the two camps and fired tear gas at the student
demonstrators, dispersing the crowd.
About 1,000 student demonstrators regrouped and marched for
several more hours, running up and down the city's steep, hilly
streets, waving sticks and branches and calling for the president's
departure.
They ended up at the headquarters of the Organization of American
States, where they called on the organization to support their
effort.
Afterward, Roudy Heriveaux, a member of the Haitian parliament's
Chamber of Deputies and the ruling Lavalas party, told a local radio
station that the demonstrators represented a small minority of
Haitians.
The march came less than a week after a much smaller student
demonstration against Aristide ended in a violent attack by the
president's supporters, wounding about 20 people by bullets, rocks
and iron rods.
Aristide, Prime Minister Yvon Neptune and other members of the
Haitian government and international community condemned the
violence.
Today"s demonstration gained a tremendous political importance
in the eyes of most observers when Dany Toussaint, an elected
Senator of the contested election of May 21 2000, joined the
students and proclaimed afterward in an interview with the press
that he was no longer a member of president Aristide lavalas party.
Rumors of the imminent departure of President Aristide have
circulated in the Capital over the last couple of days but all
signals coming from the government through the statements made by
its high ranking officials show a strong determination of Mr.
Aristide to stay in power and finish his mandate.
Top of Page
|
