Hti: Marines kill chimere attacker

U.S. Marines shot and killed a gunman during an outbreak of shooting at a weekend demonstration by Haitians celebrating the ouster of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, a spokesman said Monday.

The gunfire occurred during an anti-Aristide march Sunday, prompting the Marines to return fire in the first armed action of their week-old mission to stabilize Haiti.

At least six people were killed and more than 30 injured in the worst bloodshed since Aristide fled Haiti on Feb. 29 and U.S. and French peacekeepers arrived.

Furthermore the march had been peaceful.

The BBC's Daniel Lak in Port-au-Prince says there had been a festive atmosphere before the trouble broke out.

Crowds packed into the city's central square were dancing to the music of a disc jockey banned under President Aristide when shots rang out and panic struck, he says.

Witnesses said pro-Aristide gunmen known as Chimeres had come out of the slums around the square and opened fire from buildings or the top of a hill.

A Spanish television journalist, Ricardo Ortega, was among those killed.

At least 20 people were also said to be injured - among them other foreign reporters.

There's always an optimist who thinks the U.S. military is omniscient and omnipotent.

Witnesses criticised US-led troops for failing to prevent the violence.

"The peacekeepers were nowhere near where the shooting was," an injured man told the Associated Press news agency.

One man speaking over a truck loudspeaker told US marines: "People are dying every day in this country. You have to do something about it."

Simply priceless is this response from Col. Gurganus.

Col. Charles Gurganus told a news conference that the gunman was trying to attack Marines when he was killed Sunday.
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Gurganus said the shooting occurred near one corner of the presidential National Palace when a Marine platoon observed two gunmen. One was killed, while the troops did not know what happened to the other, he said.

Asked how he knew the man killed was a gunman, Gurganus said: "He had a gun, and he was shooting at Marines. That's what I call a gunman."