Teenager killed as Caricom envoy arrives in Haiti to mediate conflict

Wednesday, February 4, 2004

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AFP): A teenager was shot dead by police during a protest Tuesday as a Caribbean Community (Caricom) envoy arrived in Haiti seeking an end to the political violence that has torn the impoverished Caribbean state for weeks, press reports said.

The youth was killed, and three others were wounded, during an anti-government protest in the northeastern city of Ouanaminthe, the reports said.

In the capital Port-au-Prince, university students set up a barricade around a campus building and police responded by launching tear gas canisters.

Bahamian Foreign Minister Frederick Mitchell arrived in Port-au-Prince as representative of the 15-nation Caricom, which has sought to mitigate Haiti's crisis.

Opposition groups have been calling for President Jean-Bertrand Aristide's resignation in demonstrations that have often turned violent. Protesters have clashed with police and pro-government groups.

Mitchell and Caricom's assistant secretary general, Colin Granderson of Trinidad and Tobago, were meeting Tuesday with opposition leaders.

Mitchell was to meet with Aristide before leaving Haiti on Thursday.

On Saturday, Aristide said a schedule will be drawn by March for the creation of a special advisory council comprised of political parties, religious organizations and human rights groups to help organize elections.

Caricom had urged Aristide to accept the plan, which was proposed by Haitian church leaders.

Aristide, a former Catholic priest who had served a five-year term in the 1990s, was re-elected in 2000 in elections observers deemed flawed. 

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