Aristide supporters take to the streets

Thousands of outraged supporters of exiled President Jean-Bertrand Aristide poured out of Haiti's slums and into the streets on Friday, marching on the U.S. Embassy to denounce the "occupation" of their homeland and demand Aristide's return. Hurling slurs at U.S. Marines and calling President Bush a "terrorist," a crowd estimated at more than 10,000 materialized in the capital, seething with anger at Aristide's flight to Africa five days ago after a bloody rebellion and U.S. pressure.

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So much for the throngs of celebrants that were being reported.

Five days after Aristide was ousted by a bloody rebellion, a new tripartite council made up of people chosen by the government, Aristide's political foes and foreign nations went to work. Aristide's Minister of Haitians Living Abroad, Leslie Voltaire, was named by the government. The political opposition Democratic Platform picked Paul Denis, a former senator, and the international community chose Adama Guindo, the United Nations resident coordinator. The council will select a seven member "Council of Wise Men" within a week to pick a new prime minister and begin the process of establishing a new government.

Where are they going to find seven wise men? And all in one country? Dream on.

In the pro-Aristide Port-au-Prince neighborhood of Bellair, where glass and debris litters the streets and the stench of sewage hangs in the air, residents said foreign troops should help protect them from gunmen that raid the area nightly. They say rebels have been conducting reprisal raids. "At 6 p.m. we all have to go and find a hole to hide," said Hubert Louis, 31, referring to the nightly curfew. "If the foreign troops want to show they want to support the people, they should protect us from the soldiers who are chasing us."

I think you'd better just stock the hole with provisions.

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