Several hurt as gunmen shoot at Haiti demo

Shots were fired today during a protest at Haiti’s National Palace, where demonstrators were calling for former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide to be tried for corruption.

At least five people were injured, three who appeared to have been shot. Soldiers carried a few to a section of the palace where they could be treated.

It was unclear who fired the shots. After the shooting, US Marines began patrols around the palace.

Haitian police and US and French troops guarded the demonstration route, an attempt to prevent clashes between those who support and those who oppose Aristide.

Pro-Aristide supporters planned a joint demonstration but said they were offered no protection by the peacekeepers and were afraid of reprisal attacks from anti-Aristide activists. Their protest was rescheduled for tomorrow.

Aristide released a statement through government officials in the Central African Republic, where he is in exile, saying he was “well-looked after” by his hosts and will personally address reporters at an unspecified time. Aristide has said the United States forced him from power, something US officials deny.

Earlier, rebel leader Guy Philippe was hoisted onto supporters’ shoulders as they chanted “Guy Philippe – hero! Aristide – zero!”

Philippe, a former Aristide police chief accused of coup-plotting, reiterated today that he had no political aspirations.

There were also cheers for Louis-Jodel Chamblain, an ex-soldier convicted in the killings of Aristide supporters.

Near the state hospital, the stench rose from more than 200 bodies rotting in the morgue, most from the rebel insurgency that drove Aristide to flee exactly a week ago.

A morgue worker said the latest bodies – two men with gunshot wounds – were brought in Friday, more evidence that the latest round of bloodshed is not over in the Caribbean nation with a 200-year history of violent politics.

Rebels have refused to give up their weapons, despite Philippe’s pledge. Marines have faced hostility from armed Aristide militants.

Outside Port-au-Prince, where US Special Forces and French legionnaires have deployed, rebels groups, including a former street gang and ex-soldiers of the army disbanded by Aristide, insist they will not surrender their weapons until the peacekeepers disarm pro-Aristide militants.

The challenge of disarmament is just one of many stumbling blocks facing the impoverished Caribbean nation.

A recently appointed seven-member “Council of Sages” has been meeting to choose a new prime minister – and hope to have a decision by Tuesday.

One possibility is Lt Gen Herard Abraham, probably the only Haitian army officer to voluntarily surrender power to a civilian. Abraham succeeded Gen Prosper Avril in 1990 and immediately handed power to Haiti’s Supreme Court justice. That allowed the transition that led to Haiti’s first free elections in December 1990, which Aristide won in a landslide.

Another choice is Smarck Michel, a businessman who was Aristide’s prime minister in 1994-1995 but resigned over differences in economic policy.

The US Marine presence is the third American military intervention in Haiti, which has suffered under civilian and military dictators since a slave rebellion won independence from France in 1804.

The United States sent troops in 1915 who occupied the country for 25 years. In 1994, 20,000 troops came to end a brutal military dictatorship, halt an exodus of boat people to Florida and restore Aristide, who had been ousted in 1991.

Aristide was a wildly popular slum priest when he became Haiti’s first freely elected leader in 1990.

But his popularity diminished after he was re-elected in 2000. Haitians said he failed to improve their lives, condoned corruption and used police and armed supporters to attack his political opponents.