Aristide foes, supporters clash in Haiti capital

By Amy Bracken

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti, Nov. 14 — Thousands of demonstrators seeking the ouster of Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide clashed on Friday with the president's supporters and police outside the National Palace, witnesses said.

The march was organized by Andre Apaid, a businessman and coordinator of Group 184, originally a coalition of 184 organizations calling for the replacement of Aristide with a provisional government. The groups accuse Aristide's administration of corruption and suppressing dissent.
Many demonstrators said they were barred from reaching the protest site near the palace by police or Aristide supporters.
Apaid's brother, Claude Apaid, said a truck full of demonstrators, including his son, was struck by rocks and its front windshield broken as it entered the meeting area.
Apaid said police stopped and searched the vehicle, finding shields and plastic hand restraints, which the head of Group 184's security, also in the car, said were needed to protect the demonstrators. Police arrested all 20 people in the truck, Apaid said.
Police had no comment on the incident.
Witnesses said Aristide supporters, chanting pro-Aristide slogans and waving photos of the president, threw rocks at demonstrators, while riot police shot tear-gas pellets into the crowd or fired their guns in the air.
The witnesses said they later saw a group push a man against a wall and hit him with wooden sticks. One man yelled, ''Kill him!'' After a few minutes, a police car pushed through the crowd and rescued the man.
The victim, Erwin Monstanto, suffered no serious injuries and said later he had been beaten because he said he hated Aristide.
In the week leading up to the demonstration, public officials accused Andre Apaid of actually being an American and being behind the July killings of several Aristide supporters in the Port-au-Prince slum of Cite Soleil. Apaid and his lawyers deny the accusations.

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