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.
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.
PHOTO: AP
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.
News reports said that 30 people were injured and being treated at hospitals.
"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."
Gunfire 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 former President Elie Lescot in 1946, followed by former President Paul Magloire in 1956. Their opposition also led to the weakening of the Duvalier family dictatorship, which imprisoned many students during its 29-year regime until 1986.
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 US 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 the removal of Paquiot 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 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 elections.
The opposition refuses to participate in elections unless Aristide steps down, but he plans to serve out his elected term until 2006.
Haitian sociologist Laennec Hurbon, who as a student fled to Paris under Francois "Papa Doc" Duvalier, 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."
Asian perspectives of the US have shifted from a country once perceived as a force of “moral legitimacy” to something akin to “a landlord seeking rent,” Singaporean Minister for Defence Ng Eng Hen (黃永宏) said on the sidelines of an international security meeting. Ng said in a round-table discussion at the Munich Security Conference in Germany that assumptions undertaken in the years after the end of World War II have fundamentally changed. One example is that from the time of former US president John F. Kennedy’s inaugural address more than 60 years ago, the image of the US was of a country
‘UNUSUAL EVENT’: The Australian defense minister said that the Chinese navy task group was entitled to be where it was, but Australia would be watching it closely The Australian and New Zealand militaries were monitoring three Chinese warships moving unusually far south along Australia’s east coast on an unknown mission, officials said yesterday. The Australian government a week ago said that the warships had traveled through Southeast Asia and the Coral Sea, and were approaching northeast Australia. Australian Minister for Defence Richard Marles yesterday said that the Chinese ships — the Hengyang naval frigate, the Zunyi cruiser and the Weishanhu replenishment vessel — were “off the east coast of Australia.” Defense officials did not respond to a request for comment on a Financial Times report that the task group from
BLIND COST CUTTING: A DOGE push to lay off 2,000 energy department workers resulted in hundreds of staff at a nuclear security agency being fired — then ‘unfired’ US President Donald Trump’s administration has halted the firings of hundreds of federal employees who were tasked with working on the nation’s nuclear weapons programs, in an about-face that has left workers confused and experts cautioning that the Department of Government Efficiency’s (DOGE’s) blind cost cutting would put communities at risk. Three US officials who spoke to The Associated Press said up to 350 employees at the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) were abruptly laid off late on Thursday, with some losing access to e-mail before they’d learned they were fired, only to try to enter their offices on Friday morning
STEADFAST DART: The six-week exercise, which involves about 10,000 troops from nine nations, focuses on rapid deployment scenarios and multidomain operations NATO is testing its ability to rapidly deploy across eastern Europe — without direct US assistance — as Washington shifts its approach toward European defense and the war in Ukraine. The six-week Steadfast Dart 2025 exercises across Bulgaria, Romania and Greece are taking place as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine approaches the three-year mark. They involve about 10,000 troops from nine nations and represent the largest NATO operation planned this year. The US absence from the exercises comes as European nations scramble to build greater military self-sufficiency over their concerns about the commitment of US President Donald Trump’s administration to common defense and
RSS