Violence has grip on Haitian capital

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti -- Those demanding the return of ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide hurled stones and fired shots in the air yesterday as the death toll from a surge of violence in the Haitian capital rose to 14.

Three pro-Aristide politicians, meanwhile, barricaded themselves in a radio station for six hours before surrendering to police, denying involvement in the clashes.

The three politicians said police intended to arrest them on weapons charges. They were led out of the Radio Caraibes building in handcuffs last night after a judge entered with an arrest warrant to negotiate their surrender.

''They are kidnapping me. They have no reason to arrest me. It is an illegal arrest," former Senate president Yvon Feuille said, appealing to Aristide supporters not to respond with violence as he was led away.

At least five men were killed Friday by gunmen outside the home of an anti-Aristide community leader in the seaside slum Village de Dieu, residents said yesterday.

Police also fired on a peaceful demonstration of Aristide supporters in the neighborhood of Bel Air on Friday, killing two young men, said Anne Sosin, a human rights monitor of the Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti.

Radio Metropole reported one civilian shot dead in a pro-Aristide demonstration Friday, while Justice Minister Bernard Gousse said police had killed two gang leaders Thursday in fighting in Cite Soleil, a seaside slum teeming with Aristide loyalists.

The headless bodies of three police officers turned up Friday. They, along with a fourth policeman, were killed in clashes Thursday in Port-Au-Prince, police said.

''Aristide's partisans have begun an urban guerrilla operation that they call Operation Baghdad," human rights activist Jean-Claude Bajeux said yesterday. ''The decapitations are imitative of those in Iraq, and they are meant to show the failure of US policy in Haiti."

On Thursday, Aristide's Lavalas Family party began three days of commemoration of the 1991 coup that toppled Aristide's first government. They are demanding an end to the ''occupation" by foreign troops, referring to the US-led force that followed Aristide's February ouster and UN peacekeepers who have taken over since June.

Aristide, now in exile in South Africa, has accused US agents of kidnapping him when he was flown out of Haiti on a US-chartered jet amid a bloody rebellion. The US government insists Aristide left of his own free will.

In the Village de Dieu, several people fearing for their lives abandoned homes after the five men were killed Friday. The anti-Aristide activist who lived in the home targeted, Jean Renald, escaped and went into hiding, residents said.

One of those killed, Mackenson Simeon, 23, was ordered to lie down and was shot twice, in the head and neck, his sister Roselaine Simeon said.

The bodies were taken away in ambulances, leaving blood staining the ground.

''The attackers are gangsters, political opportunists who are taking advantage of the three-day commemoration to terrorize the people, to destabilize the country to make it easier to rob and rape," said Jean Louis, a 30-year-old mechanic in the slum of crumbling cinder-block homes. ''Their power is fire power, not persuasion."

Lavalas party officials said their demonstrations were peaceful and blamed the interim government and anti-Aristide infiltrators for the violence.

''No effective step was taken to ensure the security of the demonstrators," Lavalas party spokesman Gilbert Angerville told Radio Metropole.

The three politicians became holed up inside Radio Caraibes' offices after appearing on the air yesterday. They denied involvement in any crime.