Meanwhile, the government has banned all political demonstrations in Cap-Haïtien until 19 November. According to representatives of the executive, the measure is motivated by the need to prepare for the celebration of the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Vertières on 18 November. Opposition groups in the northern department have described the ban as anti-constitutional. (Radio Metropole)

29 October - Two people were killed and many wounded on Tuesday during a demonstration against unemployment organised by the inhabitants of the La Saline area of Port-au-Prince. The residents of this poor area, most of them youths, were once again calling on the Lavalas government to give them work. While they were making their demands known, a policeman known as Bello, who serves at the Cafétéria police station, opened fire on the demonstrators. (Signal FM)

29 October - In Gonaïves, police continue to criss-cross the Raboteau area where gunfire can still be heard. Despite the police presence, burning tyre barricades have been set up at various points. For the third consecutive day, all activities in the area have been paralysed. There is growing criticism of the police operations in the area. Since the death of Amiot Métayer in late September, 12 people have been killed, including a baby who died in a house fire on Tuesday. (Haiti Press Network)

28 October - One of Haiti’s most popular independent radio stations has suspended newscasts, just hours after gunmen sprayed the offices with gunfire. Five men opened fire on Radio Caraïbes late on Tuesday. Bullets hit the sports director’s car and damaged the office facade. The assailants stole pistols from two policemen but the gunfire came from assault weapons. The gunmen’s vehicle had a state license plate, but government spokesman Mario Dupuy said the car could have been stolen. He also said gunmen may have wanted it to look like the government was involved. (AP)

27 October - The police have intervened in the Raboteau quarter of Gonaïves, deploying officers by land, from the sea, and even by helicopter. At least two people were wounded by gunfire, and a dozen were arrested. The home of the Métayer family was set on fire. Buter Métayer, brother of Amiot, the leader of the Cannibal Army chef assassinated in September, is one of the main leaders of the movement calling for the resignation of President Aristide. (AlterPresse)

26 October - In Gonaïves, anti-government protesters have attacked a police station, and gunfire has killed a girl on her bicycle and wounded the police chief and two officers, a government spokesman said. Mario Dupuy said the police station raid was led by fugitive Jean Tatoune, one of 150 inmates who escaped prison in August 2002.

Meanwhile, in Haiti's second-largest city of Cap-Haïtien, Aristide partisans set up flaming tyre barricades on Friday night to block opposition supporters from entering the northern city and force an opposition alliance to cancel a protest scheduled for Sunday. The North District Front - composed of opposition parties and citizens groups - planned to hold the march as opposition leaders ended three days of strategy talks. (AP)

21 October - The United Nations independent expert on the human rights situation in Haiti is set to visit Haiti from 23 October to 5 November, and talk to senior officials about a range of issues, including the island nation's efforts to fight HIV/AIDS. Louis Joinet will meet high-level government officials and members of the judiciary, including representatives of the Office for the Protection of Citizens and the School for Magistrates. He is also expected to meet representatives from the press, the police force and civil society, as well as officials from the UN and the Organisation of American States. (UN)

20 October - Following a three day truce called by leaders of the Gonaïves Resistance Front for the Overthrow of Jean-Bertrand Aristide (formerly known as the Cannibal Army), the city has been brought to a standstill again. One person, Wesner Morancy, was wounded by gunfire when police dispersed an anti-Aristide demonstration organised by the Citizens' Union of Gonaïves, a grouping of various organisations close to the opposition. Another demonstration, organised nearer the centre of town in the poor area of Raboteau on the initiative of Amiot Métayer's supporters, dissolved before the police arrived.

Meanwhile. the Minister of the Interior announced that the police have arrested two people accused of involvement in the disturbances. For their part, organisers of the demonstrations denounced the behaviour of the police, and said they would continue to mobilise to obtain the resignation of Aristide. (AlterPresse)

16 October - Haitian police have arrested a prominent businessman indicted by the United States for drug-trafficking, and US anti-drug officials immediately whisked him away, said an official familiar with the case. Elie Aubert, known as "ED1" for his ED1 Construction company, was detained on the outskirts of the Haitian capital and handed over to the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), said the Haiti-based official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. A DEA official in Miami said he could not confirm details of the case but believed it was related to a Fort Lauderdale indictment. (Reuters)

16 October - Protesters demanding the ouster of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide exchanged gunfire with police in Gonaïves, and at least two people were reported wounded. Shots were fired after hundreds of demonstrators took to the streets and set up flaming tyre barricades, the private Haitian broadcaster Radio Transatlantique reported. A protester was shot in the head and a police officer was shot in the shoulder, the station reported. Violent demonstrations in Gonaïves over the past three weeks have killed at least eight and wounded 29. (AP)

14 October - Anti-government protestors, calling for the resignation of President Aristide, have taken to the streets in the town of St-Marc. The demonstration is the first of three days of protest planned by a popular orgaisation close to the Democratic Convergence. The protest took place in a calm atmosphere without any police presence. (Signal FM)

10 October - More than 4,000 illegal Haitian immigrants are deported monthly from the Dominican Republic, according to the Dominican authorities. Migration director Miguel Vazquez told reporters the country has implemented a programme to deport "all" illegal immigrants, "regardless of their nationality." Every year, thousands of Haitians cross the border into the Dominican Republic, fleeing poverty and seeking work in construction and on sugar-cane plantations. Once the Haitians are detained, they are taken to Santiago province, located some 155 kilometers (96 miles) north of Santo Domingo, for processing and eventual deportation, Vazquez said. (EFE)

8 October - The fugitive from justice, Jean Pierre, known as Tatoune, has carried out new acts of violence in Descahos, a poor area of Gonaïves. The fugitive, who is supposed to be sought by the police, has once again led a band who called for the departure of the government. Tatoune's followers threw stones and pieces of broken bottles, and broke the tables belonging to street merchants who wanted to resume their trade following Monday's funeral of Amiot Métayer. Jean Tatoune escaped from prison on 2 August 2003 after being sentenced to life imprisonment for his role in the Raboteau massacre of 22 April 1994. The police have offered a reward of 750,000 gourdes for anyone helping them apprehend Tatoune. (AHP)

7 October - Landslides caused by heavy rains have swept down on poor areas of the capital, killing at least 12 people and leaving dozens of others homelesss. At least five people were injured and 14 reported missing following the landslips on Sunday night in three areas of Port-au-Prince, civil defense director Yolene Surena said. The mudslides carried away several cinderblock houses, built without permit on the slope of city ravines, Surena said. The government warned the residents months ago that their houses were condemned and would be demolished, she said. (AP)

5 October - An opposition group has cancelled an anti-government protest planned in Cap-Haïtien, saying it feared violent clashes with government partisans also demonstrating in Haiti's second-largest city. Despite the cancelled march, about 100 opposition supporters went into the streets to protest President Jean-Bertrand Aristide's government, with some attempting to cross police lines while about 1,000 Aristide supporters marched nearby. There were no incidents, however, as police blocked the way. (AP)

3 October - The Haitian police have defended themselves against accusations of brutality, a day after a raid on a shantytown left at least five dead and nearly a dozen wounded. Officers stormed a slum in the west-coast town of Gonaïves on Thursday to arrest several supporters of street gang leader Amiot Métayer, who was shot to death last week. The gang is accused of fomenting violent protests that have raged for more than week in the port town. Witnesses claimed that police shot indiscriminately at bystanders during Thursday's raid. But police said they were fired on.

"What interest would we have in shooting at the people?" said Gonaïves police inspector Cadostin Marc-Andre, in an interview with Radio Signal FM. The US government criticised Haitian authorities for the deaths. "I would like to express our deep regret over the death of innocent victims in Gonaïves and our concern regarding the excessive and blind use of force by the police," US Ambassador James Foley said. (AP)

3 October - Police trying to raid a shantytown touched off a gunfight that killed five men in the city of Gonaïves, radio stations reported. The city has been paralyzed by protesters angry over the slaying of a gang leader once loyal to President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. Officers went on the offensive on Thursday, a day after protesters torched the police station. With a helicopter hovering overhead, police tried without success to penetrate the Raboteau shantytown, exchanging gunfire with protesters for two hours, independent Radio Etincelles reported.

Five people were shot and killed in nearby slums, including two motorbike taxi drivers trying to flee the firefight, two radio stations reported. At least 10 people were wounded, raising the toll to six killed and 28 wounded since Amiot Métayer's bullet-riddled body was found on September 22.

National Police spokeswoman Daphne Orlando said she had no information about the raid. She spoke in Port-au-Prince, 70 miles southeast of Gonaives. Members and supporters of Métayer's "Cannibal Army" gang claim the government ordered his assassination to stop him from spreading damaging information about Aristide. The government denies involvement in Metayer's slaying, saying only its political opponents gain from protests it links to "the armed wing of the opposition." (AP)

1 October - A group of attackers have stormed four government buildings in Gonaïves, torching three of them in revenge for the slaying of gang leader, Amiot Métayer. They set fire to a customs house, police station and a state-run insurance company, Radio Metropole reported. The customs house was partially damaged and the police station was gutted, the radio station reported. The group smashed the first-floor windows of the National Insurance Office and burned documents, partially damaging the building. They later stormed the internal revenue bureau, carted out documents and burned them in the street. Hundreds of protesters then took to the streets and formed flaming tyre barricades on the seventh day of protests since Metayer's bullet-riddled body was found near the town of St. Marc on 22 September. No injuries or arrests were reported in Wednesday's demonstrations.

Protesters have been demanding President Jean-Bertrand Aristide's resignation, saying the government was involved in Métayer's killing because he had damaging information on Aristide. The government denies the claim. The about-face in the attitudes of Métayer's supporters signals a growing rift between the Caribbean country's president and poor street activists who have been a key source of Aristide's support. (AP)

SEPTEMBER

29 September - National Popular Party leader (PPN), Ben Dupuy, has announced his party's intention to hold a demonstration in Port-au-Prince in order to mark the twelfth anniversary of the 30 September 1991 coup d'état. He said that the objective of the demonstration will be to demand the legal abolition of the Haitian Army, the author of the coup which claimed around 5,000 victims. The PPN will also denounce the movement they call the "Macoute-bourgeois alliance" which they say is trying to destablise the country.

Dupuy denied rumours that the demonstration would be anti-media, and while denouncing certains radio stations for their refusal to report on past PPN demonstrations, he called for the journalists to attend the demonstration so that population would know what is really going on. (AHP)

29 September - No date has yet been set for OAS secretary-general Cesar Gaviria to present a new report on Haiti. The OAS special envoy, Terence Todman, who must first submit his own report to Gavira last week completed his second mission to Haiti. In the course of his two visits to Port-au-Prince, the envoy met with the protagonists, and took notes with a view to submitting a report. According to sources close to the OAS in Washington, Todman spoke with people not directly involved in the crisis to try and find points of view about how to resolve the situation. Apparently the OAS is still against all unconstitutional maneouvres and actions aiming at the taking of power. However it wants the authorities to make additional efforts to reassure all sectors of society that they will be able to participate in the electoral process. At the same time, the same sources say that the OAS recognises that it is impossible to satisfy in full all the demands of each and every sector. (AHP)

27 September - Tyre barricades burned for a fifth straight day as hundreds of people took to the streets of Gonaïves to protest the killing of a gang leader once seen as loyal to President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. Schools and public buildings have been closed since Tuesday and many remained indoors because of the violence in the town, about 70 miles northwest of Haiti's capital, Port-au-Prince. Saturday's protest was shorter and calmer compared to the previous four days. No injuries were reported. Police did not fire tear gas to disperse the crowd as they had done previously. Businesses in the northwestern port town of Gonaïves opened for the first time since the demonstrations began Tuesday, allowing residents to buy food and supplies. (AP)

26 September - Thousands of people have taken to the streets of Gonaïves to call for the departure of President Aristide, according to Radio Metropole. It is the fourth consecutive day of anti-government demonstrations following news of the assassination of Amiot Métayer at the beginning of the week. Since early morning, burning barricades have been erected across numerous streets where US flags can often be seen flying. (Radio Metropole)

25 September - For the third consecutive day there is high tension in Gonaïves where new anti-government demonstrations have taken place this morning. Police have again intervened to disperse the demonstrators with gunshots and tear-gas. No victims have yet been reported by journalists, who have reported that gun shots coming from heavily-armed police have been heard.

Demonstrators have flown the US flag in the Raboteau zone, and are calling on the US to remove President Aristide who they blame for the murder of Amiot Métayer. The police have however succeeded in establishing a presence in Raboteau, and a precarious calm reigned during the night. The previous evening, police seized a coffin carried by demonstrators who were "chanting for the burial of the Lavalas regime."

All activities in Gonaïves are paralysed, and most houses have their doors closed. The residents of some areas of high tension have started to flee. The local authorities have announced that specialist doctors must carry out an autopsy of the body of Métayer today. (AlterPresse)

25 September - President Jean-Bertrand Aristide has condemned the killing of a pro-government gang leader whose death has been blamed on the government. "I'd like share my sincere condolences with the family of Amiot Métayer," Aristide said of the so-called "Cannibal Army" chief. "We condemn without reserve all killings in this country, in particular the killing of Amiot Métayer," he told reporters as he left the country for the UN General Assembly in New York. (Reuters)

24 September - At another demonstration denouncing the assassination of Amiot Métayer that has taken place in Gonaïves, followers of the pro-Lavalas gang leader have demanded the resignation of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. A showdown between the police and the demonstrators resulted in the wounding of five people by gunfire. The demonstration was led by Peter Métayer, Amiot Métayer's brother, and by Jean Tatoune, an ex-convict condemned to life imprisonment in the context of the 1994 Raboteau massacre who escaped from the Gonaïves jail in the company of Amiot Métayer and many other dangerous criminals on August 2, 2002. Jean Tatoune has pledged to continue the anti-Aristide mobilisation, and stated that Métayer's remains would not be interred so long as Aristide remains in power.

Many people have begun to flee the city. Police have set up roadblocks all over the area, especially in Raboteau, Métayer's fief. Nearly all activities have come to a standstill in Gonaïves. According to the director of the judicial police, Jude Perrin, a search has been initiated for Odonnel Paul, the head of a pro-Lavalas organisation in the company of whom Amiot Métayer left his residence on September 21. Paul's mother's residence was ransacked and set ablaze in reprisal by Métayer's followers. (AlterPresse)

24 September - Thousands of people have joined a demonstration in Gonaïves to protest against the murder of Amiot Métayer. Five people were wounded when police firing automatic weapons and tear-gas intervened, according to local media reports. (AlterPresse)

23 September - Chavannes Jean-Baptiste, coordinator of the Papaye Peasant Movement (MPP), has denounced a wave of violence in the Central Plateau that is directed, he says, by Lavalas Family popular organisations. In Baptiste's opinion, the insecurity proves that elections are impossible at the moment. He called for justice to be served on the instigators of the troubles so that peace can be restored to the region. (Signal FM)

23 September - The powerful leader of popular organisations in Gonaïves, Amiot Métayer, is dead. His death has been confirmed by the mayor of St. Marc, Paul Pollyx, who announced it on air on Radio Metropole. According to Pollyx, Métayer - the leader of the Cannibal Army - had been assassinated. The mayor, who was not able to say when the crime took place, revealed that Métayer's body was found in a zone called Bas Gros Morne, not far from St. Marc, on the morning of 22 September, and had been deposited at the town mortuary. According to sources, the popular organisation chief was killed by numerous bullets to the head and back.

Amiot Métayer had been a fugitive since his escape from the Gonaïves prison on 2 August 2002, but was able to move around the city freely. His arrest was called for by the opposition and the international community in the context of the violence committed after the attack on the National Palace on 17 December 2001. His detention was one of the conditions demanded by the OAS Resolution 822 in order to create the security for free elections. (Radio Metropole)

20 September - Organisations in the South-East department of the country have come together to form a platform called the Coordination Régionale des Organisations du Sud-est (KROS in Creole). This coordinating platform, which held its first congress on 14 Septemeber in Jacmel with the participation of 500 delegates from 10 communes, endorsed an initiative to mobilise in order to win respect for the population's social and civil rights.

"To put pressure on the government to establish effective justice and social security", and to develop social and economic activities to reinforce Haitian culture at a national level and to promote it at an international level - these are some of the spheres of action on which the KROS will focus, according to Lesly Cassis Bennett. During the first KROS congress, a team headed by the agronomist Gérald Mathurin, a former Minister of Ariculture under President René Préval, was created to lead the platform with a three-year plan of action.

"It is clear that a regional dynamic is necessary to give the State a new direction in favour of the majority of the population," declared Gérald Mathurin in a speech during the KROS congress. Mathurin denounced the corruption at the State level, "The State is emptying the public coffers and participating in drug-trafficking", which he said is the reason why the KROS is struggling to establish "a new State for a new society."

Mathurin called for a mobilisation to dismantle the existing regime. "We are asking the population of all nine departments to mobilise themselves to overturn the Lavalas government", he declared. (AlterPresse)

16 September - The European Union's latest statement on Haiti expresses "particular concern" about "the fact that it has not been possible to nominate the members of the provisional electoral council and by information that elections may be held which would not take place in accordance with Resolutions 806 and 822 of the OAS Permanent Council and Resolution 1959 of the General Assembly of the OAS adopted on 10 June 2003 in Santiago, Chile." The European Union (EU) also "notes with dismay the ever more frequent and serious violations of individual rights and freedoms. In particular, it deplores the recent events which took place at Cap-Haïtien and the brutal intervention by the national police."

The EU "once again calls on the Haitian authorities to take the necessary steps to restore a climate of security capable of restoring confidence so that the electoral process can ensure the greatest possible participation by Haitian civil society." (European Union)

16 September - More than 4,000 opposition supporters protested against President Jean-Bertrand Aristide's government on Sunday and clashed with a counter-demonstration in Haiti's second largest city of Cap-Haïtien. Dozens were injured by police and Aristide supporters in a similar protest on August 30 also in northern Cap-Haïtien. The United States and the Organisation of American States criticised the government for excessive force in that incident.

Sunday's protest ended with at least 13 injuries, after opposition organisers defied warnings from Aristide activists that another demonstration could produce a bloodbath. As they marched through the city, oposition supporters met inevitably with a pro-Aristide group of nearly 1,000 that was following the same path from the opposite end. Police attempted to halt the pro-government group's advance, firing tear gas but failing to disperse the crowd. The two groups then began hurling rocks and bottles at each other, prompting police to use tear gas to disperse the opposition. Thirteen opposition supporters were hospitalised with injuries from rocks and bottles. (AP)

Since last year, the cash-strapped government has contracted independent power producers to supplement available power. Now providing round-the-clock electricity to seven provincial towns, the state-run utility, Haiti Electricity (EDH), buys and resells the power to people at subsidized prices. In addition, the government has projects, for example one with the Canadian government, that light another half dozen towns. The two systems have brought 24-hour power to more than 5 percent of the Caribbean country's 7.9 million people, including residents of the second city, northern Cap-Haïtien, which has had round-the-clock power for a year, and the third city of Les Cayes, in the south, lit since February. The west coast towns of St. Marc and Gonaives received light last week. Still, officials estimate Haiti needs about 400 megawatts of power - four times what is being produced and 16 billion gourdes (US$400 million) to bring the insufficient and obsolete system to world standards.(AP)