Supporters of exiled Haitian president rally for his return

[dArKeR]

AFP AND AP , PORT-AU-PRINCE
Thursday, May 20, 2004,Page 6

At least three people, including two police officers, were injured on Tuesday when clashes broke out during a protest by 500 supporters of exiled president Jean Bertrand Aristide, police said.

Violence erupted when former soldiers, armed with assault rifles and hand guns, tried to block the demonstration in downtown Port-au-Prince. Eight of them were arrested by the UN-led multinational force and handed over to Haitian police.

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/world/archives/2004/05/20/2003156233

[alittlelark]

1. Have we forgotten them???

What has happened. Why would Haitians not feel that all hope is lost when they witness the reaction of the western world to their plight??
At least KPFA has kept up with their struggle. W/O KPFA I would have no idea what is happening to our neighbors.

Do you HATE * ??? Guess what, he did this (this time). Can't allow a democracy of 'darker than thou' to occur so close to home. Haiti will make a wonderful sweat shop nation.

Where are our values?

[struggle4progress]

2. Aristide must still be popular in some circles.

At least 9 demonstrators killed during huge march on Haiti’s Flag Day
Marchers face down US Marines, shout ‘Liberty or death,’ ‘Bring back Aristide’

May 18 is Haiti’s Flag Day, and a demonstration was planned and authorized by the police authorities. Copies of the authorization letter, dated May 10, were sent by Fanmi Lavalas to the United Nations, OAS and CARICOM.
Yet today the Haitian police, along with U.S. Marines, shot indiscriminately into the crowd aiming to break up the demonstration.
“They slapped us hard today,” one of the demonstrators stated over the phone from Port-au-Prince. “But we slapped them right back because they thought all their killings of Lavalas and torturing had intimidated us all into hiding in our own country. They did not expect so many of us to take to the street to ask for the return of President Aristide and the disbanding of the army soldiers who are now running the Haitian National Police. That’s why we slapped them back.”
<snip>
The demonstrators came out in massive numbers. They attempted to march peacefully and had no weapons, only the Haitian flag. But as the crowd got bigger, it is reported the Marines got madder and more surprised, more frustrated, and started shooting directly into the crowds. People in the hundreds of thousands were singing “Libete ou lamo” (Liberty or death) and refusing to be intimidated, even as their fellows kept being cut down by police and U.S. Marine bullets.
<snip>
http://www.sfbayview.com/051904/haitisflagday051904.shtml

:cry: :mad: