International press reports Sunday reported that rebel fighters, invoking the Voodoo god of war, say they will not surrender their weapons until supporters of Mr. Aristide do the same.
A recently appointed council, meanwhile, was meeting in Port-au-Prince Saturday to decide on a new prime minister, as opposition leaders pushed for Yvon Neptune to be replaced.
Haiti was expected to have a new prime minister by Monday.
On Sunday, international media reported that at least one person was killed when shots were fired at a march of thousands of Mr. Aristide’s opponents.
The Associated Press said that five people were wounded during the rally, in front of the National Palace in Port-au-Prince, which was attended by about 10,000 people.
Opposition Leader Evans Paul was quoted on Sunday as saying, “We demand that Aristide be put on trial – his people must also be tried for looting state coffers and murdering civilians.”
Mr. Aristide’s supporters, meanwhile, were scheduled to hold a demonstration on Monday, after postponing it on Sunday.
Twenty-five hundred French and U.S. troops were on alert for possible violence as a result of the demonstrations.
Weeks of unrest in Haiti climaxed last week with Mr. Aristide’s resignation. The former president, who is in exile in the Central African Republic, last Monday claimed that United States officials forced him to leave.
Bahamian government officials, meanwhile, continued to watch developments in Haiti over the weekend, bracing for the possible fallout from a burgeoning humanitarian crisis in the Western Hemisphere’s poorest nation.
Authorities have prepared the Carmichael Road Detention Centre and a facility at Inagua to accept 2,000 Haitian immigrants – 1,000 each – in the event more Haitians flee their homeland.
Sea patrols by officers of the Royal Bahamas Defence Force were stepped up weeks ago around the Bahamas’ southern border in an attempt to curb a feared exodus.
The U.S. Coast Guard has also been patrolling waters off Haiti in another proactive move.
The Bahama Journal
