News & Analysis This Month

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti, Jan. 14 (Reuters) - Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide called for parliamentary elections within six months to overcome a bloody standoff with his foes, but the opposition said on Wednesday the ground had not been prepared for a free and fair ballot.

Civil activists and political opponents said Aristide's appeal after meeting with President Bush (news - web sites) at the Summit of the Americas in Mexico was meant to appease foreign critics of his rule over the region's poorest country.

"Aristide knows it's impossible to do elections in six months," said Gerard Pierre-Charles, leader of the opposition political party Organization for People in the Struggle.

"There is no chance of free, democratic elections. They would be fraudulent elections."

Once a hugely popular former Roman Catholic priest, Aristide became Haiti's first democratically elected leader in 1991 only to be deposed in a coup soon after. He was restored to power by a U.S.-led invasion and re-elected in 2000.

But his popularity has waned following the tainted results of parliamentary elections that year, and amid accusations of corruption and political violence.

Several people have been killed in recent months after increasingly large anti-government marches were attacked by pro-Aristide gunmen.

The government blames the opposition for the bloodshed. The Organization of American States has urged Haiti to hold new parliamentary elections, under the supervision of a multi-party council, but the absence of dialogue has prevented that. The terms of most legislators expired on Monday, rendering Parliament powerless.

Aristide told reporters on Tuesday he had discussed a recent Catholic Church peace plan, which would pave the way for a new vote, with Bush in Monterrey, Mexico.

The plan, which calls for the inclusion of civil society and opposition parties in some government functions, was first rejected by the Lavalas party as a church-sponsored coup.

In an abrupt turn, Aristide last month said he was willing to discuss the proposal, while the opposition, as well as a prominent Haitian bishop, said it was too late for dialogue.

State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said on Wednesday that both Bush and Secretary of State Colin Powell had made it clear in meetings in Monterrey they supported the church plan as one way of kick-starting negotiations.

"It's very, very important for the government to enter into dialogue with the opposition, try to solve these problems peacefully," Boucher said.

At the Summit of the Americas, Aristide said he hoped the opposition would meet with him and members of the international community in the Bahamas later in January -- a meeting Boucher said he did not think had been confirmed but which Washington could encourage.

"My wish is that that meeting create a wonderful opportunity for my fellow countrymen, my brothers from the opposition, to have a good dialogue," Aristide said. "That dialogue may be one more step toward compromise, toward elections."

Evans Paul, leader of opposition party the Confederation of Democratic Unity, said on Wednesday he did not know if the opposition would send a representative to the Bahamas.

"We are OK with elections and dialogue," he said. "But the obstacle is Aristide."

MONTERREY, Mexico, Jan. 13 - Prime Minister Paul Martin is stepping into the crisis enveloping Haiti, promising yesterday that Canada will help mediate a solution as political violence threatens to make the Caribbean country ungovernable.

A boy passes in front of a wall with the slogan 'Down with Aristide' in Port-au Prince, Haiti, Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2003. Opposition is mounting against President Jean-Bertrand Aristide's embattled administration but it's unclear whether any candidate will have the international backing and popular support to lead the country out of its deepening morass. (AP Photo/Walter Astrada)

Mr. Martin said Ottawa will back up efforts by the 20-nation Caribbean Community, which is holding crisis meetings with Haitian opposition groups next week, and he pledged to become more closely involved thereafter if Ottawa’s efforts prove useful.

"Canada will very much be there and will do everything it can," Mr. Martin said after meeting with Caricom leaders at the Summit of the Americas in Mexico.

Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, who is facing growing demands from protesters at home to resign, was the only one of the Caricom leaders not to attend the meeting with Mr. Martin.

Mr. Aristide was represented by his foreign minister, but did arrive later yesterday in Monterrey, Mexico, where the Haitian crisis is expected to be a key issue at the meeting of 34 nations.

Mr. Martin also told reporters yesterday that Canada is relaunching free-trade negotiations with the Caribbean countries, which range in size from Jamaica with more than two million inhabitants to St. Lucia, with fewer than 200,000.

The federal government initiated negotiations toward a trade pact during the 1990s, but those talks were subsumed in efforts to reach a free trade area of the Americas from Alaska to Argentina.

With the FTAA talks now making little progress, Mr. Martin has breathed new life into the talks with Caribbean nations.

A government official said the federal cabinet is likely to quickly vet a formal negotiating mandate and timetable.

Caricom leaders praised both initiatives yesterday, but focused on the immediate crisis in Haiti rather than the promise of open borders.

"The situation in Haiti is getting worse," Caricom Secretary-General Edwin Carrington said in an interview. "Canada can really help."

Liberal MPs in the Montreal area, which has a large Haitian population, have urged Mr. Martin to get involved.

Some Canadian officials were leery about doing so, however, fearing there is little progress possible at the moment.

Mr. Carrington noted that Mr. Martin made it clear in the closed-door meeting that Ottawa will step in after next week’s meeting only if it is felt it can have a real impact. Canada has, for years, worked to improve governance in Haiti by training police forces and the judiciary. Such efforts are threatened, Canadian officials say, if political stability proves elusive.

The Caricom recently sent a delegation to Port-au-Prince to seek a political compromise. The meeting on Jan. 20 in the Bahamas, which now also involves Canada, follows this initiative. As well, a delegation from the Organization of American States is visiting Haiti now, led by a former Canadian diplomat.

Mr. Aristide took office in 1990 as a friend of the poor but was quickly overthrown. The U.S. military restored his government three years later and he stepped down in 1995, forbidden by the constitution to seek immediate re-election.

Mr. Aristide was swept back into office in 2000 in a vote that the opposition charged was rigged. Opposition forces have demanded he resign ever since, accusing him of dictatorial rule and even involvement in drug trafficking and political assassinations.

Mr. Aristide has countered that the opposition forces represent only Haiti’s wealthy elite and don’t respect the democratic will of Haitian voters.

He also met with Chilean President Ricardo Lagos, Colombian President Alvaro Uribe and Argentine President Nestor Kirchner.

DREW FAGAN, The Globe and Mail Writer. Reprinted from The Globe and Mail edition of January 14, 2004.

JAN. 14 - President Aristide is under pressure to resign The opposition in Haiti has rejected an announcement by President Jean-Bertrand Aristide promising general elections within six months.

Opposition leader Paul Denis reaffirmed that the president had to resign before he would take part in any elections.

But speaking at the Americas summit in Mexico, President Aristide ruled out standing down as a solution to the crisis.

More than 40 people have been killed in anti-government protests since September.

Opposition spokesman Mischa Gaillard said Mr Aristide's promise to hold elections was a manoeuvre made at the Mexico summit because other leaders wanted to hear about democracy.

Mr Aristide is currently ruling Haiti by decree after the mandate of most members of parliament ran out. There is now no functioning legislature in the country.

Since then protests against the worsening economic situation in the country and the lack of political dialogue have increased.

On Tuesday, several anti-government radio and television stations suspended operations after being attacked by armed men.

Haitian media reported that the men were looking for the antenna of Radio Caraibes, which government supporters accuse of bias.

The director of one of the independent radio stations affected by the attacks accused the government of involvement.

On Monday thousands of students marched through the Haitian capital, Port-au-Prince, in the latest of a series of demonstrations against President Aristide. Mr Aristide acknowledged the protests in his speech at the summit, but said that the rioting which had marred protests in recent months must end.

"The students aren't happy, I am also not happy. They have the right to express their position, but a distinction has to be made between [real] students and false students."

Mr Aristide has rejected opposition calls to resign and says he will serve out his full term in office, which ends in 2006.

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti, Jan. 13 - Vandals armed with sledgehammers smashed radio antennas Tuesday, forcing at least seven radio stations and one television station off the air, a station owner said.

A group of men tied up guards and began attacking antennas on a hillside outside of suburban Petionville, witnesses said.

Privately-owned stations Radio Galaxie, Radio Kiskeya, Radio Melodie, Radio Magique-Stereo, Radio Plus, and Radio Signal-F.M. went off the air. Radio and Television Ti-Moun, which are owned by President Jean-Bertrand Aristide's Foundation for Democracy, were also silenced.

Radio Kiskeya co-owner Marvel Dandin, who blamed the government, accompanied authorities to the site. Police said they were investigating.

The vandals damaged the antennas of pro-government stations only because their "attack was blind. Nothing marks the difference between one antenna and another," Dandin said.

The attackers tried to force the security guards to identify the antenna of Radio Caraibes, which government partisans have accused of anti-government bias in its reporting, Dandin said.

Haiti has been in turmoil since May 2000 elections the opposition charges were rigged. Opposition parties refuse to participate in legislative elections unless Aristide steps down.

At least 46 have been killed and more than 100 wounded in street clashes between government supporters and opponents.

Aristide has said he opposes violence and favors a free press. Haitian media groups, however, accuse police and government supporters of regularly harassing journalists.

Some 30 Haitian journalists have gone into self-imposed exile in the past two years after receiving threats. There have been several attacks recently on private radio and television stations.

MONTERREY, Mexico, Jan. 13 - Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide on Tuesday refused to bow to opposition demands for his resignation but promised legislative elections in the next six months.

"Because we respect our friends of the opposition, we want to dialogue and maybe together with the international community see what will be the best date for," tyrant Jean-bertrand Aristide. But the photograph, above, tells he is a man of deception, he is once again telling a big lie - An Hatian man walks in front of aerials in a cluster of radio antennae on a hillside of Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2004. Unidentified armed men tied up the security guards protecting the antennae compound in Boutilliers and attacked the antennae receivers with sledge hammers. (AP Photo/Walter Astrada)

Aristide said his government would meet with opposition leaders and members of the 15-member Caribbean Community in the Bahamas next week at a gathering monitored by international observers, including Canada.

"Because we respect our friends of the opposition, we want to dialogue and maybe together with the international community see what will be the best date for," elections, Aristide said at the Special Summit of the Americas.

But opposition leaders said Tuesday they had no plans to meet with Aristide in the Bahamas and were still refusing to participate in legislative elections unless he stepped down.

Aristide said an electoral council made up of nine members, including opposition, civil society and government representatives, was working to set a date for the elections.

"No meeting is planned," said opposition spokesman Mischa Gaillard. "Aristide's promise was a maneuver knowing the heads of state want to hear about democracy and elections."

Anti-government demonstrations in the past four months have left at least 46 people dead in the impoverished nation and more than 100 wounded. Both sides blame the other for the violence, but most of the deaths have been anti-government protesters.

Aristide, the country's first freely elected leader, won by a landslide but was overthrown in a coup in 1991. He was restored to power in a 1994 U.S. invasion but forced to step down in 1996 due to a term limit.

He won his second term in 2000 and he says he plans to serve until it ends in 2006. He is barred from running for a third term.

The political and constitutional turmoil in Haiti deepened yesterday as the country's parliament ceased to function and President Jean-Bertrand Aristide began in effect to rule by decree while mass protests against him continued.

With a general strike entering its fifth day, President Aristide delivered a speech at the airport in Port-au-Prince in which he failed to mention the clamour for him to step down.

Amid tight security, the President then left on his private jet to attend the Summit of the Americas in Mexico. His address was dedicated to honouring the founding fathers of Haiti, which became the world's first black republic 200 years ago this month.

You are studying international law, a scholar in the field of concern, not even a person of pronounced intellectual curiosity, still this researched-based article is for you: Free market Iraq? Not so fast / Please see also, of importance or intellectual rigor: Declaration publique de l'ex-Senateur Margarette Martin / Related photos / Studying literature by the numbers

On Sunday, 10,000 people marched through the capital demanding that President Aristide leave office. The protests began after the Catholic Bishop, Pierre-Andre Dumas, criticised the government for nurturing corruption, repression and anarchy.

"Don't be afraid," the Bishop said. "We need to take another path so that Haiti can live." More demonstrations were expected around the country. While Sunday's march was mostly peaceful, clashes between opponents of the President and his supporters and police have led to the deaths of hundreds of Haitians since early December.

Last week, the United States, which helped reinstall President Aristide in 1994 after he was ousted from power in a military coup, censured his administration for allowing "government-sponsored gangs" to rampage through the country intimidating his opponents. Anger at President Aristide has been mounting in recent months. Insisting that parliamentary elections in 2000 were flawed, the opposition has refused to participate in new balloting. The terms of most of the members of parliament expired yesterday, making the body defunct.

The protests against the government have been led by students, businessmen and civil rights groups. They accuse President Aristide, a former Jesuit priest who became Haiti's first democratically elected leader in 1990, of corruption and human rights violations. President Aristide, 50, who was re-elected in 2000, has vowed to remain in office until his current term ends in 2006.

Frandley Denis Julien, an anti-government leader in Port-au-Prince, said: "We are engaged in a struggle that is pitting the people against the state. We need institutions. We need leadership. We don't need a charismatic leader to replace Aristide."

Most banks, schools and large businesses have been closed since last Thursday because of the strike. It is being led by Jean Henold Buteau, a doctor in Port-au-Prince. The government has condemned it. Haitian commandos with M16 rifles patrolled the rooftops as President Aristide prepared to leave the airport yesterday.

Helicopters hovered above the scene as a long convoy of black vehicles ferried the Haitian leader to the aircraft that was due to transport him to Mexico.

Before his departure, President Aristide renewed his call to the opposition to take part in elections. "The minute we say yes to the democratic process, we also say yes to the electoral process,'" he told The Miami Herald in an interview. "It's time to have elections. Elections [are] the best way to lead the country from where we are in crisis, to economic growth, to a better future."

In its scolding of President Aristide, the US alleged that his police force is to blame for some of the recent violence.

"Although it is clear that some elements of the police worked diligently to protect the demonstrators, it is also clear that other police officers collaborated with heavily armed, hired gangs to attack the demonstrators," Richard Boucher, the State Department spokesman, said on Friday. 12 January 2004 23:25 Search this site:

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti, Jan. 13 - Haiti's parliament became powerless Monday as the terms of most legislators expired while a political impasse kept the country from holding new elections.

The legislative impasse comes a day after the largest march yet against President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, compounding the turmoil that has engulfed this Caribbean island in recent months.

A spate of anti-government demonstrations in the past four months has left at least 46 people dead and more than 100 wounded. Both sides blame each other for the violence, but most of the deaths have been anti-government protesters.

The legislative dilemma is rooted in disputed elections held in May 2000. The opposition has refused to participate in new elections unless Aristide resigns. Hehas refused.

Out of the 27-seat senate, four senators' terms expired Monday. Eight had previously resigned, leaving just 15 members. In addition to the senate, all 83 members of the Chamber of Deputies' terms expired.

"The government will continue. Aristide will not govern by executive decree," said Sen. Clones Lans, whose term expired. "But elections are important. We cannot continue indefinitely without a parliament."

The senate can continue meeting with a 14-member quorum but no new laws will be passed and no pending loans can be ratified. The new budget was passed before the legislators' terms expired.

Former senator and opposition leader Paul Denis said the legislative crisis is the latest blow to Aristide's embattled administration.

"The moment of Aristide's fall from power is approaching," Denis said. "There is no parliament, but he and his government intend to rule in spite of their illegality."

Aristide is the country's first freely elected leader who won by a landslide but was overthrown in a coup in 1991. He was restored in a 1994 U.S. invasion but forced to step down in 1996 due to a term limit.

He won his second term in 2000 and he says he plans to serve out his term until 2006. He is barred from running for a third term.

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Jan. 12 (AFP) - Haiti's President Jean Bertrand Aristide appealed for calm as deadly unrest and constitutional troubles mounted in the impoverished Caribbean republic.

Aristide who faces mounting opposition calls to stand down, called for "peace" in an address to the nation before leaving for the Summit of the Americas in Mexico where the troubles facing Haiti are expected to be raised.

The former Roman Catholic priest left Haiti with the legislative process grinding to a halt as the mandate of its 83 deputies and two thirds of its 27 senators ends Monday night because no new elections have been called.

Students held a new demonstration on Monday, a day after between 20,000 and 30,000 people took part in one of the biggest rallies yet against Aristide in Port-au-Prince. A supporter of Aristide's ruling Lavalas party was killed in the northern town of Miragoane.

In his speech, Aristide, said: "let light and peace shine everywhere in the country with wisdom."

"On my return we will intensify this indispensable peace," he added, without giving details. Aristide said that while at the summit, in the Mexican town of Monterrey, he would "defend the interests of the Haitian people as usual." The Haitian capital has seen mounting tension in recent months as the campaign to remove former priest Aristide from office has gathered momentum. This week two protesters were killed and about 30 people were injured during protests.

The unrest overshadowed celebrations on January 1 of the 200th anniversary of Haiti's independence from France.

The opposition accuses Aristide of corruption and mismanagement since legislative elections in May 2000, which the opposition said were fixed by Lavalas. The president still has two years of his five-year term to serve and refuses to step down. The parliamentary collapse adds to his concerns.

"Fifteen senators will remain in their functions from midnight on Monday," said Lan Clones, an influential senator for Lavalas. "As the quorum is 14, the 15 senators can run the commissions and full sessions and the government will not have to rule by decree," he told AFP.

No laws can now be passed but Clones said he hoped new elections would be organised as soon as possible.

The Organisation of American States has tried to mediate but the government and opposition have been unable to agree new elections. The new Haiti crisis is expected to be discussed at the Summit of the Americas.

Aristide offered his condolences to the families of the Lavalas supporter killed in Miragoane and to the family of a police official, whose body was found early Sunday at Cap Haitien in the north.

After the killing of the Aristide supporter during rival demonstrations, Lavalas members in Miragoane tried to burn alive an opposition supporter who was taken to hospital in critical condition.

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti - Tens of thousands of Haitians marched in the largest such demonstration against embattled President Jean-Bertrand Aristide on Sunday as political tensions across the country grew.

The march began at a church outside of the capital with about 1,000 people carrying a banner calling for "Another Haiti." But the crowd swelled to tens of thousands as the protesters approached Port-au- Prince.

Riot police followed the protest. No injuries were reported, but Aristide partisans threw sticks at the marchers at one point.

"Don't be afraid!" Rev. Pierre Andre Dumas, a Catholic bishop, told the crowd. "We need to take another path so that Haiti can live."

Meanwhile, the body of district police commander Jeanty Edner was found Sunday morning on a street in north-coast Cap-Haitien, Haiti's second largest city, news reports said. He was shot in the chest, but the motive was not clear.

In a separate protest, an Aristide supporter was shot and killed in the town of Miragoane, some 50 miles west of the capital, private Radio Vision 2000 reported.

It was not clear who shot him, but Aristide partisans retaliated and set an anti-government protester on fire, the radio station said. The man was hospitalized but his condition was unclear.

During protests in the past four months, at least 46 people have been killed and more than 100 wounded. Both sides blame each other for the violence, but most of the deaths have been anti-government protesters.

"We want nonviolent demonstrations, but they want civil war," said Cirvil Bernier, a 44-year-old construction worker and Aristide partisan. "That's why we want to stop them."

Government critics accuse Aristide of being power-hungry, while the government accuses the opposition of impeding progress. Tensions have been rising since Aristide's party won 2000 legislative elections that observers said were flawed.

The opposition refuses to participate in new elections unless Aristide steps down, but he says he will serve out his term until 2006.

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti, Jan. 9 (Reuters) - Most banks, schools, gas stations and large businesses in Haiti were closed on Friday on a second day of a strike called to demand the ouster of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.

A spokesman for the former priest once widely hailed as a hero of democracy but now accused by critics of trampling on rights said a strike was not indicative of public opinion in the poorest country of the Americas, where 70 percent of people are unemployed.

The stoppage, which did not affect state enterprises or small businesses, came on the heels of escalating confrontations between Aristide supporters and his foes.

At least two people were killed on Wednesday before the strike in clashes between armed Aristide backers and thousands of protesters in Port-au-Prince. Washington on Friday condemned the authorities for allowing "government-sponsored gangs" to rampage.

Strike organizer Jean Henold Buteau, a doctor, said all 20 doctors in his clinic were observing the strike, as were non-emergency physicians at Port-au-Prince hospitals.

"The strike is not 100 percent because small merchants cannot afford to strike," he said. But he called the demonstration a success.

"This action represents a menace to the right to an education, economic liberty of each citizen (and) the right to free movement of each citizen," Dupuy said in a statement.

Thousands of government opponents, led by students, businessmen and civil associations, have been marching for the past several months, accusing Aristide of corruption and human rights violations and calling for his departure.

They are frequently met by government supporters armed with guns or machetes, or police. The authorities accuse the opposition of instigating much of the violence.

Aristide became Haiti's first democratically leader in 1991. Since being reelected in 2000, he has been at odds with opponents over the tainted results of parliamentary elections that year. The dispute has prevented new parliamentary elections from taking place as required by the constitution.

On Sunday, the terms of most Haitian legislators will expire, and the opposition has called a demonstration for that day to protest what some see as an increase in the concentration of power in the president's hands.

WASHINGTON, Jan. 9 (Reuters) - The State Department on Friday condemned Haiti for allowing "government-sponsored gangs" to attack demonstrators demanding the ouster of Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.

At least two people were killed on Wednesday when Aristide supporters clashed with demonstrators who want him to step down, according to a Reuters reporter at the scene. It was the second mass protest this year.

"The United States condemns the actions of the Haitian government in response to the political demonstration that occurred January 7 in Port-au-Prince," State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said in a written statement.

"Although it is clear some elements of the police worked diligently to protect the demonstrators, it is also clear that other police officers collaborated with heavily armed, hired gangs to attack the demonstrators," he added.

"Throughout the day, these same government-sponsored gangs rampaged through the streets of the capital, stealing cars, attacking radio stations, vandalizing businesses, and harassing people," Boucher said. "A government that wishes to be considered democratic cannot continue to use street gangs as an instrument of terror and intimidation."

On Jan. 1, anti-government protesters in Port-au-Prince clashed with police as Aristide marked the country's bicentennial with promises to improve the lot of his people.

Boucher called on the Haitian government to stop trying to suppress peaceful dissent, to punish those responsible for such repression and to carry out reforms to restore the rule of law.

Aristide became Haiti's first democratically elected leader but was deposed in a bloody 1991 coup. He was restored to power in the poorest country in the Americas by a U.S.-led invasion in 1994.

He was elected to a second term in 2000 but has been at odds with opposition parties and international donors over the tainted results of parliamentary elections that year.

NEW YORK, Jan. 9 (AFP) - Political violence in Haiti has prompted New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg to postpone a visit there he had planned for Sunday, but he will still visit Jamaica as planned, his office announced.

New York is home to a large number of Haitian and Jamaican immigrants. Bloomberg is postponing the trip "in light of recent conflict in Haiti," as well as the recommendations from the US embassy in Port-au-Prince, his office said in a statement Friday. Bloomberg however "still plans to visit the nation during its 200th birthday celebration," and will host a reception in honor of Haiti's independence bicentennial at the governor's mansion in New York next week. In Kingston, Bloomberg is scheduled to meet Jamaican Governor General Howard Cooke, the mayor of Kingston and business and political officials. According to the mayor's office, there are some 300,000 New Yorkers of Haitian descent, and 500,000 of Jamaican descent.

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti, Jan. 8 - Government opponents launched a two-day strike that shut down most businesses in the capital Thursday, the latest in a series of sometimes-violence protests in the Caribbean nation.

In Washington, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell said he was "very disturbed" about the deteriorating situation in Haiti.

Powell spoke a day after the latest protest left three dead and more than two dozen injured. Since mid-September, at least 45 have been killed and more than 100 wounded during demonstrations.

Tensions have been rising since Aristide's party won 2000 legislative elections that observers said were flawed. The opposition refuses to participate in new elections unless Aristide steps down, but he says he will serve out his term until 2006.

Traffic dwindled in Port-au-Prince, meanwhile, as most shops, banks and gas stations were shuttered in the strike. But government offices remained open, buses kept running and vendors were out in the streets.

"Strikes aren't for us poor people. The majority voted for (President Jean-Bertrand) Aristide and want him to finish his term," said Jean Oriol, 34, a market vendor selling used clothes.

In his comments, Powell encouraged Aristide and the opposition to considering a proposal by Haitian religious leaders for easing the political impasse.

Under the plan, made in November by Haiti's Catholic Bishops Conference, the Parliament would be replaced by an interim governing council, with nine members drawn from the Supreme Court, political parties and civil society groups.

Aristide has backed the idea. But opposition parties and civil groups have opposed it, saying Aristide must step down.

Powell said the bishops' proposal would "bring some order to the political process and provide a constitutional way forward so that the people of Haiti can express their will."

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Jan 8 (AFP) - The Roman Catholic church in Haiti has seen its image tainted by its past links to Jean-Bertrand Aristide, the former priest who became president.

Now it is seeking to re-impose its moral authority by trying to mediate between Aristide and his former flock who now want him out of office.

With the threat of anarchy in the impoverished Caribbean republic mounting daily -- two more people were killed and 30 wounded in new demonstrations Wednesday -- the church has proposed setting up a special committee to advise Aristide and guide the country to new elections.

The measure has been welcomed by some other nations and accepted by Aristide, who made his name as a firebrand priest in the shanties of Port-au-Prince.

But the opposition, which accuses the president of corruption and misrule, want him out of office immediately. And some Haitian bishops are joining the anti-Aristide campaign.

The bishop of Port-au-Prince, Pierre Dumas, accused the ruling circles of organising gangs to attack anti-government demonstrators and the police of being a tool of intimidation.

"The person concerned should make a patriotic gesture : shorten his mandate or resign," declared the young bishop and a member of the Episcopal Conference which proposed the compromise.

The church is one of the few institutions that remains intact in a disintegrated society, still rebuilding from the years of the Duvalier father and son dictatorships. It is however still reeling from the effect of the priest who became a defender of the poor, then president and is now accused of abusing power like past Haitian leaders.

As a committed young priest, Aristide pushed "liberation theology" as he campaigned against Jean-Claude ’Baby Doc’ Duvalier.

Able to communicate in local Creole, his espousal of ’human dignity’ seized the imagination of Haitians, 85 percent of whom live in poverty.

Aristide was eventually unfrocked for mixing politics and religion. Now many priests are critical of Aristide, especially those who supported his stance against Haiti’s former military regime. It was tough when the church was divided between the Catholic hierarchy that opposed Aristide’s anti-imperialist views and those who felt the church should be for the poor.

Father Max Dominique accuses Aristide of having "used religion for his own political ends, presenting himself as a messiah" figure. "I was always suspicious. He had a problem with working in a team, and he always referred to the most violent passages from the Bible," said Dominique.

Another priest once close to Aristide, Joachin Samedi, virulently opposes his former mentor and calls for "Aristide the dragon to be hunted." The president, since leaving the church in 1995, has married and had children, but remains intent on keeping the Catholic faithful on his side.

According to government spokesman Mario Dupuy, the church "is an authority that matters in this country." In Haiti, God’s name is incessantly invoked.

One lottery is called "The Eternal Father", a food store can be called "Faithful Jesus, Food Provisions" or a taxi "Thank You Jesus."

But Catholicism has lost ground to Protestant churches supported by funds provided by US churches, according to Dominique. "Its credibility has been shaken but the church is still very present in national life, it wants to help people find a way out," said Bishop Dumas.

"It has matured a lot. Before it gave the orders, now it makes proposals. Jean Bertrand Aristide came from within us, so now we have to be more modest."

But Dominique said the bishops have become divided on how to handle Aristide. "The church should get out of politics to retrieve its authority."

Most businesses were closed in Haiti’s capital Thursday as opponents of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide answered a call for a two-day protest strike and stepped up demands for him to resign.

Traffic dwindled in the metropolitan area of 2.5 million people as most shops, banks and gas stations were shuttered.

"Everybody stay home ! Aristide has to go for Haiti to be saved !" said a radio spot broadcast over Haitian stations after the Democratic Platform, a coalition of opposition parties and civil groups, called the strike.

Haiti’s Chamber of Commerce encouraged its 200 members to strike. But government offices remained open, while buses kept running and vendors were out in the streets as usual.

"Strikes aren’t for us poor people. The majority voted for Aristide and want him to finish his term." said Jean Oriol, 34, a market vendor selling used clothes.

The strike came a day after thousands of students and other Aristide opponents marched in a protest marred by clashes that left at least two dead and more than two dozen injured.

Many schools in Port-au-Prince had been scheduled to start classes on Tuesday but delayed the term’s opening due to the unrest.

Meanwhile, witnesses said, very few businesses joined the strike in northern Cap-Haitien, the Caribbean country’s second largest city.

Tensions have been rising in Haiti since Aristide’s Lavalas Family party won 2000 legislative elections that observers said were flawed. The opposition refuses to participate in new elections unless Aristide steps down, but he says he plans to serve out his elected term until 2006.

Aristide was once idolized by the vast majority of Haiti’s 8 million people, but his popularity has waned as critics say his government has failed to cope with deepening poverty and has quietly condoned violence against opponents.

Aristide has condemned violence and has defended his government, saying it has made advances while facing many obstacles. Last week he pledging new efforts to help ease poverty and heal other ills during celebrations marking Haiti’s 200th anniversary of independence.

Opponents last week also stepped up calls for his ouster, demanding he be replaced by a transitional government headed by a Supreme Court Justice and nine-member governing council.

"The strike is insurrectionary," said government spokesman Mario Dupuy, who accused opponents of instigating violence during Wednesday’s protests.

The clashes broke out when Aristide partisans armed with rocks and firearms attacked demonstrators and police opened fire amid the unrest. At least two people were shot and killed. News reports said 30 people were injured and being treated at hospitals. Since mid-September, at least 44 people have been killed and more than 100 wounded during anti-government demonstrations across the country.

Following the example of past student movements that helped topple two presidents, university students marched against President Jean-Bertrand Aristide on Wednesday in a protest marred by bloody clashes that left at least two dead and more than two dozen injured.

Opposition demonstrators march towards downtown Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Wednesday, Jan. 7, 2004. University students and anti-government demonstrators marched against Aristide in spite of attacks by government supporters that left at least one dead and eight injured.(AP Photo/Walter Astrada)

Aristide partisans armed with clubs, bottles and pistols, swooped down from pickups to block the marchers who were joined by thousands of anti-government demonstrators shouting "Freedom !" and "Down with Aristide !" as riot police fired shots to keep government partisans away.

I, uncommonly vicious tyrant Jean-Bertrand Aristide, don't think can let people demonstrate against me during the year 2004. More photos

At the beginning of the protest, Aristide partisans attacked demonstrators, hitting one with a rock and shooting another. Later, police shot and killed an Aristide supporter after he opened fire on the crowd. One anti-government protester also was shot and killed.

At another leg of the march, government partisans opened fire, wounding two demonstrators. The Aristide supporters, known as chimeres or thugs, then surrounded a group of students, stabbing one and beating six others. Students beat two Aristide supporters.

"We have no future," student Rodeny Williams said Wednesday as he marched to shouts of support by shopkeepers and street vendors. "We are not afraid."

Gun fire crackled throughout the day as smoke billowed from burning tire barricades and demonstrators regrouped when Aristide supporters attacked with bullets and rocks. Organizers stopped the march when police warned they could no longer guarantee security.

The anti-government demonstrators and students accuse Aristide of hoarding power and failing to help the poor. In a country where an estimated 40 percent of the 8 million people are under 18, the student’s wishes carry weight and have historical clout.

Student protests and strikes helped oust President Elie Lescot in 1946, followed by Paul Magloire in 1956.

The marchers join a swelling youth protest movement as many face a bleak future. Most Haitians are jobless or without regular work, foreign investment is at a standstill and foreign visas to countries such as the United States and France are increasingly hard to obtain.

"Under Aristide there will be no progress," said protester Leopold Willeens, a 26-year-old student who hopes to start a publicity agency. "I’m the first student in my family to go to university, and I want a better life."

Aristide rose to power by making promises to the poor and to the youth. In 1986, he helped start a home for street children, but his popularity among the youth was already waning when he proposed a new leader for Haiti’s state-run university in 2002.

The government removed University of Haiti Rector Pierre-Marie Paquiot, saying Paquiot’s mandate was up, and appointed an interim board. But the students protested and accused the government of violating the constitution, which protects the university’s autonomy.

Paquiot was reinstated and has since become an icon of the student protest movement.

Last month, at least two dozen were injured in violence that broke out after police separated dozens of Aristide backers from about 100 students. Paquiot was beaten in both legs with an iron bar and at least four students were shot and wounded.

Student demonstrations have surged along with protests by others. Members of civic groups, clergy, business leaders and artists who oppose Aristide joined Wednesday’s march.

"The signal we’re sending today is that we want another Haiti," said Andy Apaid Jr., a businessman and prominent Aristide critic.

Tensions have been rising in the Caribbean country since Aristide’s party swept disputed 2000 legislative elections.

The opposition refuses to participate in new elections unless Aristide steps down, but he says he plans to serve out his elected term until 2006.

Haitian sociologist Laennec Hurbon, said unlike past university students who were wealthier and against widely unpopular governments, the students today come from poor families who helped propel Aristide to power.

"Haiti has its own rhythm," said Hurbon. "To know the future, you must know its past, and the students have been a very important part of the past."

At least 1 protester was shot dead and more than 30 wounded, among them 14 severely stabbed, today during a protest for democracy in the trash-filled capital of Port-au-Prince after they were attacked by tyrant Aristide's police and bandits.

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti, Jan. 7 - Following the ways of past student movements that helped topple two presidents, hundreds of university students marched against President Jean-Bertrand Aristide on Wednesday, provoking clashes that left at least nine injured.

One protester was shot, one was stabbed and others were hit by hurled stones or beaten by Aristide supporters who stormed the area in trucks, clutching rocks and sticks.

The government supporters scattered as police fired warning shots and then fired directly toward them, but none appeared to have been wounded.

Shouting "Down with Aristide," the protesters wore surgical masks to guard against tear gas. They were blocked by barricades of wrecked cars and burning tires set up by Aristide partisans.

The students accused Aristide of trying to increase his own power and failing to help the poor. In a country where an estimated 40 percent of the 8 million people are under 18, such activism carries weight.

Student protests and strikes helped oust President Elie Lescot in 1946, followed by Paul Magloire in 1956. Their opposition also led to the weakening of the Duvalier family dictatorship, which imprisoned dozens of students during its 29-year regime until 1986.

"We have no future," student Rodeny Williams said Wednesday. "We are not afraid."

CAP-HAITIEN, Haiti, Jan. 6 - Ravaged by poverty and rising political unrest, parts of northern Haiti are suffering from a hunger crisis that could worsen as aid agencies struggle to resolve the problem with half the food they were expecting, the World Food Program said Tuesday.

NOT BAD AT ALL AFTER 200 YEARS OF INDEPENDENCE - An unidentified Haitian worker carries a sack of rice at a World Food Program warehouse in Cap-Haitien, Haiti, Tuesday, Jan. 6, 2004. Hunger is ravaging parts of Haiti where recent floods have destroyed crops. The U.N. World Food Program says nearly 25,000 people are in urgent need of food following last month's severe floods. (AP Photo/Andres Leighton) More photos

The U.N. agency, with the help of Oxfam and Caritas, is trying to deliver emergency aid to northern villages where recent floods have left nearly 25,000 people without food. To feed the neediest, food is being borrowed from school feeding programs.

"These people are barely surviving," said Guy Gauvreau, the World Food Program's officer in Haiti who recently came from its Afghanistan office. "This is a silent crisis but unfortunately donor countries have not made Haiti a priority."

The World Food Program determines need by various means, including field visits, surveying villages and collecting information from the Haitian government and other aid agencies.

The crisis can be seen on the faces of barefooted children running across the sewage-clogged ditches of the Fort Saint Michel slum, outside Cap-Haitien, Haiti's second largest city. Pale with orange- tinted hair — telltale signs of malnutrition — many go days without eating.

"Sometimes I go for a couple days without eating," said Madeline Joseph, 22, holding her sickly 8-month-old son, Youvens Jean. "I try to feed him when I can but it's never enough and he's always sick. I can't take this anymore."

Floods wiped away the maize and cassava harvest in much of the north coast last month, stealing away the little income men earned as farmers. The rains took food off the tables of the poor, and in some areas more than 40 percent are without food, Gauvreau said.

Unlike Afghanistan, which asked for $100 million in donations and received it, Haiti's WFP office asked for $10 million and received less than $5 million.

The crisis comes as deepening poverty and unrest have pushed Haiti, the Western Hemisphere's poorest country, to its breaking point.

Since mid-September, anti-government protests have surged, leaving at least 42 people dead and littering roads with barricades that hinder food shipments.

"There are demonstrations now every day," said Nelta Jean-Louis, a field worker for the World Food Program. "Sometimes it's too dangerous for us to distribute food when there are burning tire barricades blocking the streets, but the people need this food."

Tensions have been rising since President Jean-Bertrand Aristide's party swept flawed 2000 legislative elections.

Cash-strapped and facing growing dissent, the government has been unable to help the very people it promised to help. Once a priest in the slums, Aristide rose to power largely on promises to improve life for the poor.

"So far, we've gotten nothing from the government," Jean-Louis said. "We need help from the outside because the government is unable to meet its responsibilities."

"I can't read. I can't write. All I care about is figuring out how I will feed my children," said Charite Jevousaime, 52, who is waiting for the aid agencies to help feed her 13 children. "I do the best I can but sometimes the children don't eat."

Most of Haiti's 8 million are jobless or without regular work and live on less than $1 day.

The WFP is helping the neediest families by providing one-month rations of 110 pounds of rice, 22 pounds of pulses and one gallon of vegetable oil.

Oxfam is helping coordinate relief and is starting a flood recovery project with $350,000 from the European Union (news - web sites), said William Gustave, an organization official.

SOUTH AFRICA, JOHANNESBURG, 6 January 2004 - The South African Broadcasting Corporation says that at least three of South Africa's former apartheid defence force members are in the Haitian presidential protection unit of President Aristide. Meanwhile, SA president accused of starting 2004 off with a blunder.

JOHANNESBURG: The men, who were recruited through a South African agency, work for an American company. Aristide has come under fire from opposition leaders accusing him of spending millions of dollars on the unit. -SABC

Meanwhile, South Africa's Wits University's Professor Hussein Solomon says President Thabo Mbeki's Haitian visit was a diplomatic blunder. Professor Solomon says it's wrong to link South Africa's 10 years of democracy with the situation in Haiti, given the mass human rights abuses occurring under the Aristide government.

Moreover, Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, South African foreign affairs minister, is expected to consult with Haiti's major role players on the political situation in the country. Caribbean organisation (CARICOM), is trying to resolve the problems being experienced in Haiti. Bheki Khumalo, the President's spokesperson, says Dlamini-Zuma will assist wherever possible.

Opposition groups in Haiti will again take to the streets today where they will call for President Jean Bertrand Aristide to step down. They will make known their proposals for a new government. The proposals do not include President Aristide. Tensions have grown in Haiti since elections in 2000, which the opposition says were flawed. President Thabo Mbeki attended independence celebrations last week amid reports of violence. -SABC

CAMBRIDGE, MA, Jan. 5 - The new year, 2004, means more brutal murders in Haiti's Jean-Bertrand Aristide's lexicon.

"God is great," Haiti's totalitarian dictator Aristide's without scruples de facto prime minister Yvon Neptune allegedly said this past weekend, hours after he learned Aristide and others were about to finalize plots to brutally murder him and other senior illegitimate government officials, I learned early today from a credible source not associated, in part or in full, with the movement to remove the grossly incompetent and de facto president from office.

Further said the source, with the murders of Neptune and other delinquent senior government officials, bestial Aristide would attempt to consign to the archives of history Haiti's freedom fighters who continue to call for his resignation from the office of the Haitian presidency and stay course - at least until the year 2015, as he told the world in his January 1 bicentennial grade school-type speech.

The would-be assassination attempts on the lives of Neptune and others were quick to foil, at least for now, explained the source, after some of the would-be intellectual authors, including police commissioners, had a change of heart.

By way of explanation, the would-be murderers, if all of them are not already so but to a lesser degree, broke down in tears, refusing to favor brutal death for de facto Netunpe and other senior government officials.

According to the source, some of the would-be assassins' change of heart went further.

Their letters of resignation to uncommonly vicious tyrant Aristide, a man with a long history of savagely terminating human being lives, including scores of his own criminals, for example Amiot Metayer's, received a mixed reading, prompting an undetermined number of them to leave the country and seek political asylum.

What if the assassination plots had been finalized and carried out? There would be a lot more blood, the source said. Tyrant Aristide would attempt to impose a state of emergency - a highly unpopular action - before rounded up political opponents, including Andy Apaid, the leader of the opposition Group-184, an alliance of diverse organizations, declaring that they are responsible for the odious crimes, and the ultimate punishment he favors for them is reciprocal fatal death.

Meanwhile, father Yvon Massacre, a notorious troublemaker and Aristide's partner in crime who until recently once again threatened to shot to death freedom fighters, has stepped up his own attacks on members of the democratic opposition.

"Aristide must exterminate, eradicate members of the democratic opposition, wipe them all out I mean, if he is to put an end to the so-called political crisis in this country," Massacre said this week on Haitian radio stations, in the capital Port-au-Prince.

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti, Jan. 5 - Government opponents announced a week of strikes and protests aimed at toppling President Jean-Bertrand Aristide as a delegation from the Caribbean Community arrived on Monday to help mediate in Haiti’s political crisis.

Haitian businessman Charles Henry Baker, center left, speaks while Montes Joseph, left, Herve Saintilus, center right, and Turneb Delpe listen during a news conference of a civil society and opposition coalition opposed to President Jean-Bertrand Aristide in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Monday, Jan. 5, 2004. The group announced plans for a demonstration Wednesday and a two-day general strike on Thursday and Friday aimed at toppling Aristide as a delegation from the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) arrived Monday to help mediate in Haiti's political crisis. (AP Photo/Walter Astrada) More photos

The delegation’s visit came after bloody clashes between police and demonstrators marred celebrations last week marking Haiti’s 200th anniversary of independence.

A coalition of civil groups and opposition parties announced plans for a demonstration on Wednesday and a two-day general strike on Thursday and Friday as they pressed for Aristide’s ousting.

"Our principle is everyone together to save the nation," said Charles Henry Baker, a businessman and prominent Aristide opponent.

The team from the 15-member Caribbean Community was headed by Colin Granderson, an assistant secretary general of the regional bloc known as Caricom.

"We’ve come on a fact-finding mission to see what Caricom can do to help Haiti out as a mediator or a facilitator," said Granderson.

Also along on the three-day trip were St Lucian Ambassador Sonia Johnny, Bahamian Ambassador Joshua Sears and Jamaican Ambassador Peter Black.

The group is to hold talks with Aristide, anti-government opponents and others, including clergy and business leaders.

The opposition has criticised the Caribbean Community for being partial to Aristide, although at last week’s bicentennial the group sent only two high-ranking delegates. Haiti became the regional bloc’s 15th member in 2002.

Tensions have been rising in Haiti since Aristide’s Lavalas Family party swept legislative elections that some observers said were flawed.

The opposition, which refuses to take part in new elections unless Aristide resigns, last week called for the formation of a transitional government headed by a supreme court judge and a nine-member council.

Aristide refuses to step down, and government leaders say they won’t buckle under opposition pressure to push a democratically elected leader from power.

"The aim of our peaceful struggle is to implement the proposal for an alternative government," said Mischa Gaillard, an opposition leader.

Since mid-September, at least 42 people have been killed in demonstrations and more than 100 have been wounded.

SOUTH AFRICA, CAPE TOWN, Jan. 5 - President Thabo Mbeki enters 2004 with his foreign policy and image as visionary leader of the African renaissance under considerable strain, following his failed mediation bid on the Caribbean island of Haiti.

Diplomatic sources were puzzled yesterday why Mbeki would expose himself to a potential foreign policy disaster in Haiti, particularly after his image was substantially harmed by his enthusiastic support for Zimbabean President Robert Mugabe during and since the Commonwealth heads of government meeting in Nigeria in November.

Mbeki's visit to Haiti's President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, who was called "the Mugabe of the Caribbean" by Democratic Alliance (DA) leader Tony Leon, was cut short when a helicopter carrying members of his delegation came under fire at New Year as they scouted the site of the 200th independence anniversary celebrations in the city of Gonaives.

Mbeki could not attend what he felt were highly symbolic celebrations because of the danger. He was reportedly the only foreign head of state to respond to invitations to attend the celebrations, but was forced to leave after three days with his proclaimed mission of mediating between Aristide and the opposition in tatters.

SA and its large security contingent were roundly criticised by Haitian opposition, and in some quarters were seen to be in the region for the sole purpose of propping up the Aristide regime. One faction, Groupe 184, reportedly said it was neither "pleased, proud nor welcoming" of Mbeki's intervention. Others promised they could not negotiate with Aristide.

Mbeki's spokesman, Bheki Khumalo, said the president would continue to do whatever he could to assist mediation efforts, though he did not specify what that would be. And the SABC reported yesterday that Foreign Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma had stayed on in Haiti after Mbeki's departure. Khumalo said Caribbean bloc Caricom would still play the lead role in mediation efforts.

"There is a process in Haiti which is led by the Caricom group They are holding discussions and trying to resolve the Haitian problems. But he (Mbeki) will give them any help that they actually require."

Diplomatic sources said while they understood the symbolic importance of attending the independence celebrations of the first independent black republic, by being openly uncritical of Aristide, Mbeki had once again appeared to be backing a black leadership regardless of its human rights abuses a repeat of Zimbabwe, in fact. Mbeki also received a drubbing back home with Leon promising that he would probe the visit and its costs to SA during Mbeki's state of the nation debate early next month.

"I am deeply concerned that President Mbeki is propping up yet another international outcast and in the process misusing millions of SA taxpayers rands by his visit to Haiti's President Jean Bertrand Aristide, who in nine years has become the Mugabe of the Caribbean.

"The new year has begun for President Mbeki as the old year ended for him: with a foreign policy fiasco all of his own making. Once again he has placed South Africa very firmly on the wrong side of the international street on the side of would-be dictators and human rights abusers."

Leon said the facts about Aristide were freely available. "They must surely have been available to President Mbeki before he set off on his journey to infamy in the Caribbean.

"Reputable research and human rights activists of note record the country which Mr Mbeki has chosen to align us with and to celebrate with its regime as having one of the worst human rights records in the hemisphere; a state that has come increasingly to resemble a narco state', pushing drugs into the US, headed by an authoritarian president who presides over a ruling party, the Lavalas, which has been complicit in attacks on journalists and human rights workers; the corruption of the police and the judiciary; and the transformation of gangs of armed thugs into a semiofficial arm of the government.

"As a consequence of gross electoral fraud by Aristide's party, his government and its increasingly authoritarian behaviour has been condemned by the international community, which has suspended crucial foreign aid to the point where today, apart from the injection of South African taxpayer rands, there is an almost total aid embargo. Haiti has been suspended from all International Monetary Fund, World Bank and other direct aid because, in the words of the European Union, Respect for democratic principles has not yet been re- established in Haiti' ," Leon said.

He said the US state department had said that Haiti had failed to implement international counter-narcotic actions.

Paris-based journalist advocacy group Reporters sans Frontiers had included Aristide on its list of "predators of press freedom" after the fire-bombing of opposition radio stations and the murders of two prominent journalists.

"It is disgraceful that President Mbeki has squandered SA's foreign prestige, moral authority on making common cause with yet another morally dubious regime in order to thumb his nose at the west.

"I will use the state of the nation debate to demand to know the full costs of this exercise and the benefits, if any, which it has brought to SA." With Sapa

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti, Jan. 2 - South African President Thabo Mbeki met with Haitian opposition leaders Friday, a day after bloody clashes marred the 200th anniversary of Haitian independence.

President Jean-Bertrand Aristide political opposition also reiterated a demand that he step down, issuing a declaration calling for a transitional government.

At least eight anti-government protesters were injured Thursday in clashes with police. The demonstrations underscored the deepening crisis facing Aristide.

Thursday's observance of the 200th anniversary of Haiti's independence from France also drew more than a dozen foreign delegations, including one led by Mbeki.

On Friday, Mbeki called Haiti's independence and founding as the first black republic an inspiration, saying Africans on both sides of the Atlantic face common challenges of poverty and conflict.

Mbeki told opposition leaders that South Africa wasn't offering to mediate but that he wanted to hear their views, opposition politician Evans Paul said. He said Mbeki didn't take sides.

But Mbeki later emerged after a separate meeting with a coalition of 184 civil groups, saying he couldn't say what role South Africa will play in Haiti's future.

"His arrival brought oxygen to a dying dictatorship," said businessman Andy Apaid Jr., a prominent Aristide critic. He said Mbeki "should bear some responsibility in following the situation."

American actor Danny Glover said Friday the celebrations were inspiring but that he was "disappointed and dismayed" at the unrest.

Also Friday, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan (news - web sites), in a visit to Trinidad and Tobago, said he is encouraging the Caribbean Community to take a greater role in helping Haiti deal with its crisis.

Tensions have increased since Aristide's party swept 2000 legislative elections that some observers said were flawed. The contested seats were eventually vacated by senators, but the opposition has refused to join in new elections unless Aristide steps down — a demand he has refused.

Since mid-September, violent anti-government protests have killed at least 41 and wounded scores.

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti, Jan. 1 — Two hundred years ago, an army of African slaves defeated French forces on this tropical island, ending Napoleon's ambition to dominate the Americas and paving the way for the first black republic.

On Thursday, President Jean-Bertrand Aristide led a tense and chaotic observance of that bicentennial, though many found little to celebrate in Mr. Aristide's governance over what, after 200 years of independence, remains an impoverished and troubled nation.

Speaking to a small but enthusiastic crowd, Mr. Aristide called Haiti "the mother of liberty," and appealed to opposition groups, which have mounted ever larger demonstrations against his government, to agree to new elections this year.

"Civil society, the poor, the rich, the opposition, everybody, must come together to heal Haiti," Mr. Aristide said to the cheering crowd, which filled a city block and rows of bleachers set up in front of the white presidential palace in the center of the city.

The crowd, many of them poor and unemployed Haitians who spent New Year's Eve on the street waiting for the celebration, climbed atop a spiked green metal fence meant to keep them out of the palace, toppling it and injuring several people.

The throng rushed onto temporary risers set up for spectators on the palace lawn, but the risers, so new they still smelled of freshly sawed pine, also collapsed, sending the crowd rushing further still toward the dignitaries on the dais in front of the palace.

Policemen with submachine guns strained to hold back the crowd, which surged forward and chanted "Aristide or death!" The president then delivered his speech, outlining a 21-point program that he said would lift Haiti from poverty and political discord by 2015. That plan remains contingent on a $21 billion payment he is seeking from France as reparation for the payment Haiti was forced to make to France when it won its independence.

But across the capital, many Haitians were in no mood to celebrate or listen to plans for the future. Two-thirds of the country's workers are unemployed, and most Haitians live on about $1 a day. Haiti is the poorest nation in the hemisphere and leads the region in the number of AIDS cases. Life expectancy is little more than 50 years.

Since 2000, when Mr. Aristide was re-elected to the presidency in voting that many observers said was flawed, the country has been locked in political crisis. The dispute led international donors to suspend $500 million in aid, adding to the country's economic woes.

The political battle intensified when opposition groups boycotted parliamentary elections, leading to a sweep by pro-Aristide politicians. The current Parliament's term ends this month, and if a new one is not elected, the country will be plunged into still deeper disarray.

"Today we were supposed to celebrate, but instead it is a day of mourning," said Bernadel Romel, who stood among thousands of demonstrators who had planned to march to the statue of Jean-Jacques Dessalines, the former slave who led the country immediately after its independence, across the street from the palace.

Their path was blocked miles from the palace by policemen in riot gear and gas masks, who fired tear gas at the demonstrators.

"We thought Aristide would bring freedom," Mr. Romel said. "Instead he brought only death and tyranny."

Mr. Aristede had invited heads of state from around the globe for what was planned as a lavish celebration. But it was a measure of Mr. Aristide's political isolation and Haiti's persistent troubles that only one showed up.

The head of state who did attend, President Thabo Mbeki of South Africa, brought a security guard of more than 50 people, along with ambulances, an armored car and two helicopters. The only other government leader present was the prime minister of the Bahamas.

The turnout hardly provided the opportunity to rally support among an increasingly agitated public that Mr. Aristide had hoped for in commemorating the stunning defeat that a rebel army of former slaves dealt to Napoleon's forces, led by the emperor's brother-in-law, Gen. Charles Leclerc.

That defeat so rattled Napoleon that he promptly gave up his American colonial ambitions, selling the Louisiana Territory to the United States. But their victory over the French failed to bring immediate or lasting freedom to Haiti's people.

For a century they struggled under a series of tyrannical and ineffective leaders. Revolutions came and went with dizzying speed. Between 1843 and 1889, 14 leaders were assassinated or overthrown. This tumultuous history led President Rosalvo Bobo to remark on Haiti's centennial that he hoped the next 100 years would bring better days.

But much of the 20th century matched the previous one. Chaos and tyranny reigned, culminating in the brutal dictatorships of François Duvalier, and his son, Jean-Claude, who fled the country in 1986.

When Mr. Aristide, a former priest who pledged his allegiance to Haiti's poor, was elected president in 1990, his ascendancy seemed a sign that Haiti's history of rapacious dictators had come to an end. But he was quickly ousted in a coup, then reinstated in 1994 by American troops.

A decade later, there are a few signs that life has improved for the vast majority of Haitians.

"Aristide has been in power since 1994, and nothing has changed," said a leading businessman who is active in the movement to remove the president, but who asked that his name not be used because he feared reprisals. "The people are still poor and oppressed. We are told to celebrate our liberty but we don't feel free."

At a news conference on Wednesday, Mr. Aristide disputed such criticism, saying he welcomed the opposition groups as an essential part of the country's future. He said he hoped to hold parliamentary elections this year and urged the opposition parties to support his plan.

"The opposition are not enemies," Mr. Aristide said. "They are playing a role in democratic society."

But protests in the streets of Port-au-Prince and other cities have grown in recent months, and become increasingly tense and sometimes violent. On Dec. 5, Aristide supporters stormed the national university, a hotbed of anti-Aristide activism, beating about 20 people who opposed the Aristide government.

Outraged by the violence, civic groups, trade unions and professional associations rallied to the opposition movement, swelling the ranks of demonstrators.

Opposition groups said dozens of people have been killed and scores have been wounded in clashes with armed groups of Aristide supporters while the police either stand by or participate.

In Gonaïves, the coastal city where Haiti's independence was proclaimed and a flashpoint of the current political struggle, militants once loyal to Mr. Aristide have since turned against him, engaging in gun battles in the streets.

On Wednesday, as crews worked to complete the stage upon which Mr. Aristide was to speak in Gonaïves on Thursday, people in Raboteau, one of the city's slums, warned the president to stay away.

"If Aristide comes here I am going to handcuff him and I am going to kill him," said a 19-year-old member of a militia once loyal to Mr. Aristide known as the Cannibal Army. The young man, Bristey Metayer, waved a pair of handcuffs and warned a visitor: "Don't come to the celebration tomorrow. There will be blood."

South African security detail has been involved in a firefight in Haiti as it inspected a venue President Thabo Mbeki was about to visit as part of Haiti’s 200th anniversary celebrations.

It is understood that the advance party, which was checking out the venue of an event known as the Soup Ceremony, was fired upon. The security detail apparently returned fire. They declared the venue unsafe and Mbeki did not attend the ceremony.

Presidential spokesman Bheki Khumalo said this morning he could not comment on the details of the incident, except to confirm that Mbeki had not attended the event for safety reasons.

"At no stage was the president fired upon or in any danger," Khumalo said. The president had completed the rest of the engagements on his schedule, including a banquet last night. He would return to South Africa tomorrow.

A Navy spokesman said this morning that the SAS Drakensberg had been moved one mile offshore for security reasons.

Local reports said earlier that rioters had fired shots on the convoy in which Mbeki was travelling with Haitian President Jean Bertrand Aristide during the independence celebrations yesterday.

South African soldiers accompanying Mbeki and Haitian police returned fire, according to a local radio station. It said Mbeki and Aristide had curtailed their visit to the volatile city of Gonaives and returned by helicopter to the capital, Port-au-Prince.

Gonaives is where Haitians declared their independence on January 1, 1804, but it is also home to the Anti-Aristide Front, which accuses the president of corruption and misuse of power.

Earlier yesterday, police used teargas and fired into the air to hold back about 5 000 protesters staging the largest anti-government demonstration Port-au-Prince has seen in years.

The crowd was trying to march to the National Palace, where more than 15 000 Aristide supporters had gathered to hear him promising to improve the lot of his people.

The anti-Aristide crowd later swelled to about 20 000. Protesters set fire to piles of tyres, choking the crumbling streets with thick black smoke, and pelted police with rocks and bottles.

Bursts of police gunfire and screaming sirens put an abrupt end to the air of celebration An independent radio station, Radio Metropole, said two demonstrators had been shot and wounded. Another said six people had gunshot wounds.

In his speech, Aristide said : "The first black republic of the world is and remains the epicentre of liberty for blacks."

Mbeki said the struggle for freedom waged by Haitian slaves was an example for the liberation of blacks all over the world. He said a "historic struggle" remained against poverty and conflict on both sides of the Atlantic.

Aristide’s government spent $15 million on the celebrations. But many world leaders stayed away, fearing the sort of strife that erupted yesterday.

Those attending included Bahamian Prime Minister Perry Christie and actor Danny Glover. The few prominent American figures at the celebration were critical of Washington’s failure to positively influence Haiti’s plight.

Haiti, the second-oldest nation on the American continent after the United States, got its independence when black slaves kidnapped from Africa fought off Caribbean French colonialists.

JOHANNESBURG, Jan 2, 2004 (Xinhua via COMTEX) -- South African President Thabo Mbeki has canceled a scheduled visit to the northwestern Haitian city of Gonaives as a helicopter belonging to his advance protection team came under fire on Thursday.

The helicopter belonging to the South African security forces came under fire in Haiti while doing an advance sweep before Mbeki ’s scheduled visit to a soup ceremony in Gonaives, celebrating the country’s independence, the South African Press Association reported on Friday.

The helicopter turned back and South African forces of the advance team on the ground were withdrawn, the report said.

Mbeki who was supposed to attend the soup ceremony -- a tradition, which was celebrated for the first time by Haitians after independence in 1804 -- was still in the capital of Port-au- Prince.

"The president and those in his immediate party were nowhere in the area where the shooting took place. The visit has come to an end and the president will return to the country tomorrow as originally scheduled and will resume a busy domestic program," Mbeki’s spokesman Bheki Khumalo was quoted as saying on Friday.

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti, Jan. 1 - President Jean-Bertrand Aristide pledged to help impoverished Haitians reach the fruits of their independence Thursday as his supporters knocked down a fence at the presidential palace, crowding toward the podium in a celebration marking Haiti's 200th anniversary of independence from France.

Haitian soldiers walk in the streets as tires burn in Gonaives, some 100 Kilometers (55 miles) northwest of Port au Prince, Haiti, Thrusday, Jan. 1, 2004. Thousands of Haitians wet to the National Palace and spilled onto its lawn, hoping to get close to their embattled leader as the country ushered in the New Year and celebrated a bittersweet bicentennial marking 200 years of independence from France. (AP Photo/Walter Astrada)

Despite chants of "Aristide is king!" from the crowd of about 10,000, Haitians marked a bittersweet bicentennial as their country struggles with worsening economic troubles and political divisions.

"1804 was the stinging bee. 2004 is sure to be the honey," Aristide told the crowd. "It is possible to build a new Haiti because of what is on our flag, and that is, 'United we are strong.'"

Aristide listed 21 goals(you heard the same big, big lies before) he hopes will be accomplished by 2015, from stabilizing the rate of HIV infection to reducing poverty. Aristide's term expires in 2006.

Aristide said he is working with the opposition to bring new legislative elections, but opponents called for a boycott of Thursday's state-organized events, including another speech by Aristide planned in western Gonaives.

Thousands who crowded toward the presidential palace steps waved Haitian flags, jumped on the lawn and shouted out the name of their embattled leader. Riot police blocked the crowd.

"This is a sacred day for us. It's the most sacred day of all," said Louis Larieux, a 40-year-old among those who knocked down the metal fence. "We may be the poorest nation in the Americas, but we're the bravest."

Hours earlier, Haitians ushered in the New Year with fireworks crackling, shots ringing out and drums pulsing in the darkness.

More than a dozen foreign delegations, civil rights activists and actors including Danny Glover were attending the bash, but a gloomy air hung over the celebrations as some islanders questioned whether Aristide could guide Haiti out of its latest crisis of poverty, political turmoil and social unrest.

Many world leaders stayed away and some entertainers were boycotting state events. Some of the nation's 8 million people are asking how much suffering they must endure before their ancestors' triumph can be realized.

"We come from a country with a very rich history, but we are poor in so many other ways," says Pierre Jean-Joseph, a 32-year-old artist. "Happiness is relative."

Outside the presidential palace, dozens of bare-chested men painted with gold and wearing cutoff pants to symbolize slavery held conch shells, used in ceremonies to call for help from the spirits. A steady drumbeat filled the air.

"We celebrate the Haitian revolution because it dealt a deadly blow to the slave traders who had scoured the coasts of West and East Africa for slaves and ruined the lives of millions of Africans," South African President Thabo Mbeki told the crowd, saying an "historic struggle" remains for people to overcome poverty and conflict on both sides of the Atlantic.

Haiti's government was spending $15 million on events including state galas and the dedication of a monument to Haiti's forefathers.

Haiti was born after the world's only successful slave rebellion. Toussaint Louverture's army of former slaves crushed Napoleon's troops, making Haiti the first black republic and the first country in the Western Hemisphere to abolish slavery, which still flourished in the United States.

In 1904, a disillusioned President Rosalvo Bobo looked to 2004's bicentennial, saying the next century might hold more promise. But the years that followed were no less brutal — one president was blown up, another was poisoned and a third was dismembered. Nine fled and six were overthrown.

There was a flicker of hope in 1990 after 29 years of the Duvalier family dictatorship. Aristide, then a slum priest making fiery promises to the poor, was elected by a landslide.

But he was overthrown the next year. He was restored in 1994 during a U.S. invasion, serving for two years until term limits forced him to step down. Aristide, now 50, has been dogged by political troubles since his 2000 re-election, largely because of legislative elections that observers said were flawed.

The disputed vote led to an impasse with the opposition refusing to participate in new elections unless Aristide steps down — a demand he has refused.

Meanwhile, violent anti-government protests have killed at least 41 people since September and Haiti remains the Western Hemisphere's poorest country.

Rep. Maxine Waters, a California Democrat, said the anniversary was cause for celebration but criticized Washington for not doing more to help Haiti, saying the country "has never received the support that it deserves from the United States."

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti, Jan. 1 - Clashes between protesters and police marred celebrations Thursday marking Haiti's 200th anniversary of independence as embattled President Jean-Bertrand Aristide vowed to save his country from poverty and turmoil.

Underscoring deepening political divisions, more than 15,000 government supporters rallied outside the National Palace in the capital while about 5,000 presidential opponents marched toward downtown, shouting "Down with Aristide!"

Police fired tear gas and warning shots to scatter the crowd, and some protesters lay down before them shouting "freedom." Club-wielding police beat back a separate group of student protesters who tried to join the march, injuring at least two students and one professor.

"We will not allow Aristide to be a dictator," said protester Jean Gary Denis, 33. "He is using the bicentennial for his own purposes."

The thousands of government supporters were equally fervent, some of them knocking down a fence at the palace and scrambling onto its lawn as they crowded toward the podium, chanting: "Aristide is king!"

The bicentennial was bittersweet as some Haitians questioned whether Aristide is fit to guide the country out of its crisis.

But the president appeared confident as he spoke outside the National Palace, saying that "1804 was the stinging bee; 2004 is sure to be the honey."

Aristide listed 21 goals he hopes will be accomplished by 2015, from stabilizing the rate of HIV infection to reducing poverty. Aristide's term expires in 2006, and he didn't say whether he expects to be in office in 2015.

"It is possible to build a new Haiti because of what is on our flag, and that is, 'United we are strong,'" Aristide said.

The threat of violence hung over celebrations as flaming tire barricades went up in spots across the capital. A day earlier the charred bodies of two men were found on a Port-au-Prince sidewalk. There was no word on their political affiliation.

Some Aristide supporters were seen holding pieces of pipe and unlit firebombs Thursday.

The government spent $15 million on the celebrations, including galas, New Year fireworks and the dedication of a monument to Haiti's forefathers. But many world leaders stayed away.

Those attending festivities at the National Palace included more than a dozen foreign delegations, activists and actors including Danny Glover.

"We celebrate the Haitian revolution because it dealt a deadly blow to the slave traders who had scoured the coasts of West and East Africa for slaves and ruined the lives of millions of Africans," South African President Thabo Mbeki told the crowd. He said a "historic struggle" remains for people to overcome poverty and conflict on both sides of the Atlantic.

Bahamas Prime Minister Perry Christie called the bicentennial "a matter of great pride and symbolism everywhere."

In Miami, thousands of Haitian-Americans celebrated. "These are big days for us, for every Haitian," said Gisline Augustin, a resident of the Little Haiti neighborhood.

Aristide said he is working with the opposition to bring about new legislative elections. But opponents have refused to participate and urged a boycott of Thursday's state-organized events, including another presidential speech in western Gonaives, where Haitians declared their independence from slave-holding France on Jan. 1, 1804.

Later, speaking to some 2,000 supporters in Gonaives' central square, Aristide said, "the time has come ... to demand respect for the constitution, respect for everybody without distinction."

No injuries were reported Thursday in Gonaives. But gunfire the previous night wounded at least one girl and led many to take refuge.

Sporadic gunfire erupted after Aristide left, and rocks were thrown at departing cars.

Haiti was born after the world's only successful slave rebellion. On Nov. 18, 1803, French troops surrendered to forces led by Jean-Jacques Dessalines, making Haiti the first black republic and the first country in the Western Hemisphere to abolish slavery.

However, a string of leaders then drove the Caribbean country into disarray. In two centuries, Haiti has seen more than 30 coups.

There was a flicker of hope in 1990 after 29 years of the Duvalier family dictatorship. Aristide, then a slum priest making fiery promises to the poor, was elected by a landslide — only to be overthrown the next year.

He was restored in 1994 during a U.S. invasion but forced to step down in 1996 because of term limits. Now 50, Aristide has been dogged by political troubles since his 2000 re-election, largely because of legislative elections that observers said were flawed.

Since mid-September, anti-government protests have killed at least 41 people and wounded scores.

Haiti remains the Western Hemisphere's poorest country, and some blame wealthy countries for keeping it that way.

With Haiti's independence, France demanded repayment on a debt of 120 million gold francs — about $22 billion today — draining the country's coffers. Aristide said France must pay reparations.

Recently, international lenders and donors suspended more than $500 million in loans and grants after the contested legislative elections.