US marines killed Haiti gunman

US marines shot and killed one of the gunmen who fired at a huge demonstration of protesters celebrating the flight from Haiti of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.

Colonel Charles Gurganus said the man was trying to attack Marines when he was killed on Sunday.

That raised the toll to six dead and more than 30 injured in the worst attack since Aristide’s flight on February 29 and the arrival of US and French peacekeepers.

Protesters had been calling for the exiled Aristide to stand trial for alleged corruption and killings committed by his armed militants.

Gurganus said the shooting occurred near one corner of the presidential National Palace when a marine platoon observed two gunmen. One was killed, he said. Marines did not know what happened to the other, he said.

Asked how he knew the man killed was a gunman, Gurganus said: “He had a gun and he was shooting at marines, that’s what I call a gunman.”

In his first public press conference in exile in the Central African Republic, Jean-Bertrand Aristide insisted today he was still president of Haiti and called for “peaceful resistance” against what he described as the “occupation” of his homeland.

“I am the democratically elected president and I remain so. I plead for the restoration of democracy” in Haiti, Aristide said in Bangui. “We appeal for a peaceful resistance.”

He described Haitian rebels who seized large parts of the country and precipitated his overthrow as “drug dealers and terrorists.”

He also repeated allegations that the United States forced him from power, something US officials deny. Aristide was flown to Bangui on a plane arranged by the US government.

“It was in fact a political kidnapping. This political kidnapping unfortunately opened the road to an occupation,” Aristide said.