Haitians voice discontent

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti -- Police fired tear gas and warning shots at thousands of university students who spilled into the streets Thursday in the latest protest aimed at ousting President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. One bystander was killed, and at least five protesters were hurt.\nTwo students were shot and three were cut as they fled police who fired tear gas and warning shots, while Aristide supporters reportedly pelted students with rocks. It was unclear, however, who shot the students.\nMeanwhile, a bystander was shot and killed during a protest in the western town of Gonaives. Violent anti-government demonstrations have killed more than a dozen people in Gonaives since September.\n"Aristide has mismanaged the country," said Pierre Joseph, a 22-year-old student from the University of Haiti. "Every sector of the country is suffering and saying we've had enough!"\nAristide has condemned the violence, while other government leaders say the protests are aimed at spoiling state-sponsored celebrations of Haiti's bicentennial on Jan. 1.\nThe demonstrations have drawn several sectors of society, and Thursday's student protest in the capital came a day after Haiti's Education Minister Marie-Carmel Paule Austin resigned, saying she was "horrified" over a recent attack on university students.\nMore than 24 people were hurt last Friday at the university's Human Sciences College when dozens of government supporters attacked about 100 students calling for Aristide's resignation.\nAristide supporters ransacked both the Human Sciences College and the nearby Public Administration Institute, which belong to the University of Haiti, and set fire to a nearby house. University Rector Pierre-Marie Pacquiot was hospitalized after Aristide partisans allegedly beat his legs with iron bars.\nAustin said police stood by Friday as Aristide supporters attacked the students. The government however, said Austin was using the event to save face. Austin could not be reached for comment Thursday.\n"She knew she was going to be replaced because she is under investigation for misappropriation of funds," said Mario Dupuy, a government spokesman.\nStudent demonstrations have played an important role in Haiti, helping topple the regimes of President Elie Lescot in 1946 and dictator Jean-Claude Duvalier in 1986.\n"What has happened is unacceptable," said university professor Frantz Varella, who was Aristide's former Minister of Public Works. "These young people (students) aren't politicians. They are the intellectual elite of the future in revolt against the intolerable."\nAristide's administration has been locked in a stalemate with the opposition, since flawed 2000 legislative elections that the opposition charged were rigged. Since mid-September, clashes during anti-government protests have killed at least 17 people and wounded scores more.\nThe opposition refuses to participate in new elections unless Aristide steps down. The embattled leader however, says he will serve out his term until it ends in 2006.