The Reuters stories follow this one.
Opposition Party Headquarters Burned in Alleged Arson in Haiti
By Michael Norton, Associated Press
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti – The party headquarters of an opposition politician burned down Saturday in a blaze allegedly set by partisans of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, the politician said.
Arsonists threw a firebomb into the downtown headquarters of Hubert Deronceray’s Mobilization for National Development party after midnight, Deronceray said, accusing Aristide partisans of “doing their leader’s bidding.” The ensuing fire gutted the building, but nobody was inside at the time. On Wednesday, about 20 Aristide partisans had stormed into Deronceray’s headquarters, slapped party members, and announced they had received an order to burn down the building. The men left, promising to return, Deronceray said. They said that “if Aristide’s government is threatened, they will turn day into night and night into day,” he said.
The threats came amid a protest strike that slowed business activity in several Haitian cities, including the capital, on Wednesday. The Chamber of Commerce called the strike after an eruption of anti-government demonstrations on Tuesday that left some 52 people injured in the capital. During clashes, Aristide’s supporters wielded whips and hurled rocks at demonstrators.
Demonstrations have been raging for three weeks in the Western Hemisphere’s poorest country. At least 350 people have been reported hurt and three killed in demonstrations since Nov. 18. The government has blamed the violence on the opposition. The opposition, by demanding Aristide’s resignation and refusing to participate in elections, “has polarized the country,” government spokesman Mario Dupuy has said. Opposition leaders say elections are impossible under Aristide and his allegedly antidemocratic government.
Living conditions in Haiti have deteriorated in the past few years. There has been scant investment and a trickle of foreign aid, which was suspended after Aristide’s Lavalas family party swept what observers said were flawed parliamentary elections in May 2000. Gunmen raided the National Palace on Dec. 17 in an attack the government described as a failed coup attempt. The opposition accused the government of staging the attack to clamp down on dissent. At least 10 people were killed in the palace assault and subsequent violence. Aristide militants later went on the rampage, burning opposition offices and homes.
Aristide, a former priest, was ousted in a 1991 coup months after his first election as president. U.S. troops invaded and helped restore Aristide to power in 1994. Now serving his second five-year term, he has refused to step down early as opponents demand.
Violence Escalates in Haiti
Michael Deibert, 2002-12-07
Port-au-Prince – Political tensions in Haiti escalated with the burning of an opposition party headquarters in the capital, Port-au-Prince, and the attempted shooting of a senator from Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide’s ruling Lavalas Family party.
Arsonists set fire on Friday to the downtown Port-au-Prince headquarters of politician Hubert de Ronceray’s Mobilisation pour le Developpement National (MDN) party, two days after the party had received threats that the attack would happen, de Rocerary said.
“We were threatened on Wednesday that this would occur, but the police would do nothing,” de Ronceray said. “President Aristide is responsible for this as he supports this kind of action, and this is another step by the government making it clear that he must step down.”
Aristide, a former Catholic priest, was elected president in 1990 but ousted in a coup months later. U.S. troops helped restore him to power in 1994 and he won a second term in Nov. 2000. Since then he has been mired in a dispute over May 2000 legislative elections, which has stalled foreign aid for his eight million people as the economy has deteriorated.
Recently, opposition politicians and student groups have begun to call for Aristide’s resignation.
Also on Friday, unidentified gunmen opened fire on a car carrying Lavalas Senator Dany Toussaint through the capital’s suburban Pelerin district. Toussaint said that no one with him was injured, and that they returned fire on the assailants, who then fled.
Security Detail Withdrawn
Toussaint said that the Haitian National Police, who provide security to all elected officials and government ministers, had withdrawn his security detail earlier in the day.
“This may have happened because I am speaking out on sensitive issues in parliament, regarding the police, regarding kidnapping,” said Toussaint, speaking on private Radio Metropole.
“No one was injured on our side, thank God, though we may have shot some of the assassins.”
Another Lavalas senator, Norma Forpe, was also rumored to have been fired upon Friday night, though the report could not be immediately confirmed and there were no reports of injuries.
The violence comes in the wake of a a barrage of criticism directed at Aristide over the disintegrating economy and for violence allegedly committed by his supporters.
Government supporters beat anti-Aristide demonstrators in Port-au-Prince on Tuesday and five other protesters were shot and wounded in the provincial city of Petit Goave.
At least four people were wounded by gunfire two weeks earlier as Aristide supporters set up barricades of flaming tires around the capital and fired automatic weapons from the backs of pick-up trucks.
At least five people, including a judge, have been killed in political violence since November 17th.
A general strike called last week by Aristide’s political opposition and 15 business groups in response to the violence saw hundreds of businesses closed around the country.
Prominent businessman shot dead in Haiti’s capital
By Michael Deibert
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti, Dec 6 (Reuters) Gerald Khawly, a prominent Haitian
businessman and brother of the former mayor of the southern city of Jacmel,
was shot and killed in Port-au-Prince on Friday evening, police and
relatives said.
Khawly, 64, was shot in the head by two men at a gas station which he owned
near the capital’s Sylvio Cator Stadium, relatives said. His son-in-law,
Pascha Vorbe, who was with him, was shot in the neck.
The suspected killers escaped on a motorcycle and had not been captured,
police said.
Khawly was taken to Port-au-Prince’s Canape Vert Hospital where he was
pronounced dead. Vorbe would be airlifted to Miami’s Jackson Memorial
Hospital for surgery, relatives said.
Khawly’s family is prominent in coastal Jacmel, where his brother, Jacques,
the former mayor, is president of the Chamber of Commerce.
The killing came in the wake of a spasm of violence in Haiti as President
Jean-Bertrand Aristide faces a barrage of criticism over the disintegrating
economy and for violence allegedly committed by his supporters.
Government supporters beat anti-Aristide demonstrators in Port-au-Prince on
Tuesday and five other protesters were shot and wounded in the provincial
city of Petit Goave.
At least four people were wounded by gunfire two weeks earlier as Aristide
supporters set up barricades of flaming tires around the capital and fired
automatic weapons from the backs of pick-up trucks.
At least five people, including a judge, have been killed in political
violence since November 17th.
A general strike called last week by Aristide’s political opposition and 15
business groups in response to the violence saw hundreds of businesses
closed around the country
Aristide, a former Catholic priest, was elected president in 1990 but ousted
in a coup months later. U.S. troops helped restore him to power in 1994 and
he won a second term in Nov. 2000. Since then he has been mired in a dispute
over May 2000 legislative elections, which has stalled foreign aid for his 8
million people as the economy has deteriorated.