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Last Updated: Monday, 28 February, 2005, 21:57 GMT
Two killed in Haiti protest clash
By Claire Marshall
BBC News, Port-au-Prince

Haitian troops fire tear gas in Port-au-Prince
Police fired tear gas into the crowd
Two people have been killed and several others injured after shooting erupted during a pro-Aristide march in Haiti's capital, Port-au-Prince.

The protest in favour of the ousted Haitian leader comes a year after he left the country for a life in exile.

Police first fired tear gas to try to disperse the demonstrators and then reportedly shot into the crowds.

Jean-Bertrand Aristide left Haiti after several months of protests and an armed rebel uprising against him.

The crowd of several hundred supporters waved posters of the former leader and carried banners calling for his return as they marched through a pro-Aristide slum in Port-au-Prince.

UN peacekeeping troops lined part of the route.

As the crowd headed in the direction of the national palace they encountered a police roadblock.

Explosive tensions

The police first fired tear gas to try to disperse them. Then, according to witnesses at the scene, they shot bullets into the throng of people.

One man was shot in the head.

Refusing to let his body be removed by a UN ambulance, a group of people soon surrounded the corpse and draped it in the Haitian flag.

A second body was taken by local residents into a nearby alleyway.

This violence comes almost a year to the day after Mr Aristide was toppled.

It shows the explosive tensions which still exist in Haiti between those who forced him out and those who want him back.


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