Haiti private sector decries ”climate of terror”
By Michael Deibert
Reuters
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti, Nov. 24 ? In another blow to
embattled President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, Haiti’s
largest private sector association blamed ”high
authorities” on Sunday for allowing a ”climate of
terror” to roil the poor nation.
”In unison, we raise our voices in indignation,” an
association of 18 businesses and chambers of commerce
from around the Caribbean country said in a statement
after a week of protests and shootings. ”The private
sector cannot accept … orchestrated criminal
actions, planned and implemented with the taxes of
taxpayers and the equipment of the state.”
”People acting under the protection of high
authorities … have set up a climate of terror,” the
statement said.
The business leaders’ message follows a week of
large-scale protests against Aristide’s government and
tire-burning counter-demonstrations by armed
supporters of the president that paralyzed the capital
on Friday.
The business group called for the arrests of some
government supporters suspected of leading
disturbances, including Amiot Metayer, who had briefly
been at odds with Aristide over his imprisonment for
gang-related activity. Metayer, a fugitive who staged
a spectacular jailbreak in August, led a
pro-government rally in the central city of Gonaives
on Friday.
Friday’s demonstrations blocked roads in the capital
with flaming barricades, and many businesses and
schools were closed. Armed Aristide supporters also
fired into the air from the backs of pick-up trucks,
witnesses said.
Residents in Port-au-Prince on Sunday stocked up on
foodstuffs and supplies because of rumors an equally
chaotic pro-government demonstration was planned for
Monday.
Discontent with Aristide, who began a second term as
president last year but has been mired in a dispute
over elections with the main political opposition, has
recently flared into a series of large demonstrations.
Last week, thousands of high school students and their
supporters rallied in the provincial city of Petit
Goave, southwest of the capital. Displaying a bloody
school uniform, they protested the shootings a day
earlier of seven high school students by police.
Aristide, a former Roman Catholic priest, has been
locked in a dispute with the opposition Democratic
Convergence coalition over the results of contested
May 2000 elections, which his opponents contend were
biased in his party’s favor.
The deadlock has stalled up to $500 million in
international aid, adding to the woes of the 8 million
inhabitants of the poorest country in the Americas.