Haiti’s Senate Meets to Discuss Police Attack

Haitian politicians on Sunday reacted angrily to a police assault on a political meeting, saying this raises questions about whether the interim government has security forces under control.

The victim of the attack, Rene Theodore, head of Haiti’s Communist Party but considered a moderate, said, “We have to know whether or not the country is being held hostage by thugs.”

The Senate’s president called the body into emergency session to discuss the latest development in the political crisis that began with the army’s ouster of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide on Sept. 30.

“Saturday’s aggression completely unmasks the government and, as such, will backfire,” said Sen. Rony Mondestin, who on Friday had been co-sponsor of a Senate resolution calling for a 10-day delay in international talks on restoring Aristide.

“Those who still resist a negotiated settlement of the crisis have lost their moral credibility,” said Mondestin, a member of Theodore’s party.

Aristide, a Roman Catholic priest, easily won the country’s first free elections and remains popular with many Haitians, particularly the poor. But he is strongly opposed by the military and conservative elite, which accused him of abusing his authority and encouraging mob attacks on opponents.

The 34-nation Organization of American States imposed a trade embargo on Haiti in an attempt to force the military to restore Aristide. It has been pushing a plan that called for naming a new interim prime minister who would work for the eventual return of Aristide.

The police attack came during a meeting called by Theodore, who was chosen by Aristide to be prime minister under the OAS plan.

Armed men in civilian clothes stormed into the party’s headquarters, beating politicians and killing Theodore’s bodyguard. Victims identified the attackers as members of the police gang-control bureau.