Haiti Vows Crackdown on Anniversary of End of Coup

Fri Oct 15, 6:57 PM ET
By Joseph Guyler Delva PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (Reuters) -

Haiti's U.S.-backed government vowed on Friday to crush "terrorist" supporters of exiled President Jean-Bertrand Aristide as gunfire crackled in the capital on the 10th anniversary of the end of a coup against him. AP Photo

Police took up positions in streets deserted because of fears that two weeks of violence were about to spiral out of control and surrounded the Port-au-Prince slum of Bel-Air where Aristide supporters gathered. Gunfire erupted from the slum but it was unclear who was shooting. Police kept their distance from Aristide backers marking a decade since he was returned to power by U.S. Marines following three years of military rule. Members of Aristide's Lavalas Party demanded the release of imprisoned allies, ex-soldiers who helped topple him continued to trickle into the capital and the interim government said it was giving police unspecified special powers to fight "terrorism."

"A few months ago we heard a slogan, 'We are not afraid, we will never be afraid.' That is now the slogan of the Haitian national police," Justice Minister Bernard Gousse told Radio Metropole, quoting a Creole song from Haitian-American rap artist Wyclef Jean. "On the contrary, the police will now put all their forces out on the street to make sure that those terrorists who are preventing people from going around their business and children from going to school get what they deserve."

Haiti, the poorest country in the Americas, has been tense since street gangs and ex-soldiers launched a monthlong armed revolt against Aristide and cut short his second term. He fled into exile on Feb. 29 and is in South Africa. A pro-Aristide rally in the capital on Sept. 30 sparked two weeks of violence after police shot at demonstrators. At least 50 people have been killed including five police. Brazil, which leads the U.N. force in Haiti, on Thursday demanded reinforcements, and aid agencies say the violence is preventing them from delivering enough food to 200,000 people left homeless in the north after floods a month ago in which 3,000 people died. The interim government of Prime Minister Gerard Latortue and officials in Washington blame Lavalas for using violence to exploit the chaos left by the floods. Lavalas blames the interim authorities for arresting dozens of its members, including former Prime Minister Yvon Neptune, on vague charges and often without warrants. "The people in the slums are also human, we also have a right to life," said Bel-Air resident Rosny Jean-Francois, 27. "The government has decided to kill or arrest anybody who supports Aristide."