Police open fire on crowd in Haiti, at least 5 killed in peaceful protest

PORT--AU--PRINCE, Haiti -- Police opened fire on a crowd of apparently peaceful protesters demanding the release of detainees loyal to ousted President Jean--Bertrand Aristide, and at least five people were killed, U.N. officials and witnesses said.\nWednesday's shooting came as the U.S. State Department confirmed its plans to waive an arms embargo to allow sales of thousands of arms for the Haitian police, whom critics accuse of brutality, summary executions and persecution of pro-Aristide loyalists.\nU.S. officials and the interim Haitian government they helped install say the police are outgunned and outnumbered by politically allied gangsters.\nWitnesses said police drove up behind demonstrators Wednesday and shot into the crowd as it approached the headquarters of the U.N. peacekeeping mission in Haiti's capital, Port-au-Prince.\n"The police started to fire," said one witness, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of his safety. "People started to run and shout hostile slogans at the police."\nFive people were killed and an unknown number wounded, witnesses said.\nThe witnesses said the officers arrived in department pickup trucks and wore police uniforms and masks -- standard uniform for the riot squad.\nU.N. mission spokesman Damian Onses--Cardona confirmed that police opened fire on demonstrators but had no further information.\nU.N. civilian police spokesman Dan Moskaluk said peacekeepers were called to the scene after the shooting found five bodies. He called the march an "unauthorized, illegal demonstration."\nAn official at a Port--au--Prince morgue, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the bodies of five young men were brought in from the march.\nHaitian police could not be reached for comment.\nAfter the shooting, witnesses said some protesters fled to the pro-Aristide slum stronghold of Bel-Air, where at least two cars were set ablaze and automatic gunfire erupted.\nA Brazilian peacekeeper was slightly injured by a bullet to the arm, the military spokesman said.\nResidents hid in doorways as police with high-powered rifles peered around corners.\nThe shootings marked the third time in three months that police have opened fire on pro-Aristide protesters. Three people were killed in previous incidents, though police deny responsibility.\nHaiti has been mired in outbreaks of violence that has killed at least 400 people since a three-week rebellion ousted Aristide on Feb. 29, 2004.