Reply #2: Aristide must still be popular in some circles. [View All]

At least 9 demonstrators killed during huge march on Haiti’s Flag Day
Marchers face down US Marines, shout ‘Liberty or death,’ ‘Bring back Aristide’

May 18 is Haiti’s Flag Day, and a demonstration was planned and authorized by the police authorities. Copies of the authorization letter, dated May 10, were sent by Fanmi Lavalas to the United Nations, OAS and CARICOM.
Yet today the Haitian police, along with U.S. Marines, shot indiscriminately into the crowd aiming to break up the demonstration.
“They slapped us hard today,” one of the demonstrators stated over the phone from Port-au-Prince. “But we slapped them right back because they thought all their killings of Lavalas and torturing had intimidated us all into hiding in our own country. They did not expect so many of us to take to the street to ask for the return of President Aristide and the disbanding of the army soldiers who are now running the Haitian National Police. That’s why we slapped them back.”
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The demonstrators came out in massive numbers. They attempted to march peacefully and had no weapons, only the Haitian flag. But as the crowd got bigger, it is reported the Marines got madder and more surprised, more frustrated, and started shooting directly into the crowds. People in the hundreds of thousands were singing “Libete ou lamo” (Liberty or death) and refusing to be intimidated, even as their fellows kept being cut down by police and U.S. Marine bullets.
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http://www.sfbayview.com/051904/haitisflagday051904.shtml

:cry: :mad: