14392: (Chamberlain) Haiti's president blames crisis on aid freeze (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

     By Michael Deibert

     PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti, Jan 9 (Reuters) - Haiti's embattled President
Jean-Bertrand Aristide on Thursday blamed a freeze on foreign aid for the
political unrest that has roiled the impoverished Caribbean nation.
     Some $500 million of international aid has been withheld to pressure
Haiti to resolve a dispute over its May 2000 parliamentary elections.
     "If aid to the country would be unblocked, every Haitian will
benefit," Aristide told reporters at a reception for visiting South African
Foreign Minister Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma. "The opposition has a
responsibility to help unblock the country and unfreeze the money."
     Aristide, a former Roman Catholic priest, was first elected to lead
the nation of 8 million in 1990 but ousted in a coup months later. U.S.
troops helped restore him to power in 1994.
     Since his reelection in November 2000, he has been locked in a bitter
dispute with the opposition Democratic Convergence coalition over the May
2000 elections that observers said were rigged to favor Aristide's Lavalas
Family party.
     Haiti has seen a wave of anti-government protests in recent months as
students, trade unions and opposition politicians have taken to the streets
accusing Aristide of corruption and political repression and calling for
his resignation.
     Several anti-government rallies have been violently broken up by
Aristide supporters. On Wednesday, a pedestrian was shot and killed in the
provincial city of Gonaives as riot police clashed with anti-government
demonstrators.
     On Tuesday, the streets of many Haitian cities were virtually empty as
motorists and pedestrians observed a strike called by 11 of Haiti's largest
transport unions to protest rising fuel prices.
     The unions announced that they plan a massive march on Haiti's
National Palace in the capital on Friday, where they will be met by an
opposition march originating in another part of the city.
     "We will march to show solidarity with the workers of the entire
country who are being affected by this problem, we will mobilize together,"
said Evans Paul, former Port-au-Prince mayor and leader of the
Convergence-affiliated Democratic Unity Convention party. "We may very well
be met with violence, but we cannot let that deter us now.
     Asked about the potential for violence at Friday's marches, Aristide
said "According to the constitution, everyone is allowed to demonstrate."