PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (Reuters) -- An outbreak of civil unrest in Haiti has
                  prompted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide to accuse the political opposition of
                  usurping government authority, raising fears of unchecked retaliation against
                  minority party leaders in an already unstable nation.

                  "This kind of crackdown will drive the instability further," said James Morrell,
                  research director at the Center for International Policy.

                  Haiti's turbulent political scene was shaken further after hundreds of militant
                  Aristide supporters injured more than a dozen people and killed three in street
                  riots last week.

                  Setting up flaming barricades, torching cars, and throwing stones, they
                  demanded the arrest of political opposition leader Gerard Gourgue, a 75-year-old
                  lawyer and school principal appointed by his colleagues as "provisional president"
                  on Febuary 7, the day Aristide was inaugurated.

                  The 15-party opposition bloc Democratic Convergence, angered over flawed
                  legislative elections last May, accused Aristide of trying to establish a one-party
                  state. International election observers said victories were awarded outright to
                  candidates from Aristide's Lavalas Family party who should have gone into
                  run-offs because no one won a majority.

                  The irregularities prompted the Convergence alliance to boycott the November
                  26 election that overwhelmingly returned Aristide, still Haiti's most popular
                  politician, to the presidency. Convergence challenged the legitimacy of Aristide's
                  election and named Gourgue leader of a "shadow government."

                  Last week, government ministers issued warnings against unidentified "enemies
                  of the Republic." Aristide loyalists tried to burn down an opposition headquarters
                  building and attacked the school and home of Gourgue, who was trapped inside
                  with his family and 50 students at the time.

                  The attackers hurled firebombs and rubble at the buildings until police dispersed
                  them with tear gas.

                  The violence had ebbed by week's end, though a bus driver shot two
                  pro-Aristide protestors after they allegedly tried to stop his vehicle in Petit Goave,
                  40 miles west of the capital. Other demonstrators burned the bus, set up flaming
                  barricades and called for Gourgue's arrest.

                  The government condemned the violence but said it reflected growing impatience
                  with the opposition. The protests started on March 17, but Aristide did not
                  respond publicly until four days later, when he sent a taped statement to local
                  radio stations.

                  "The State will not tolerate anyone breaking the law of the land," Aristide said in
                  the broadcast. "They are acting as if there were two governments in the
                  country."

                  One diplomats said Aristide's speech "would have had more of an impact" if it
                  come earlier when the street mobs were still "fired up". Others were more
                  critical, calling Aristide's statement vague enough to give hi supporters a green
                  light for violence and for authorities to arrest opposition leaders.

                  "Judging by Aristide's speech that went over the radio waves, his game is still
                  hoping for exclusive power," Morrell said. "And he seemed in his speech to call
                  for the arrest of the opposition leader who's pretending to be a rival president --
                  and while that's an excessive pretension, so was their (election) fraud last
                  summer which has reduced the opposition to this stance."

                  A day after Aristide's speech, the Senate voted unanimously to have Gourgue
                  arrested within 24 hours. Police parked outside his home Friday but he was not
                  arrested.

                  The violence drew criticism from Washington and the Organization for American
                  States. "We call on the Government of Haiti and its security forces to respect
                  and protect the democratic and constitutional right of all citizens to assemble
                  peacefully and express their political opinions," U.S. State Department
                  spokesman Richard Boucher said in a statement.

                  The London-based human rights group Amnesty International also urged all
                  political parties "to strongly and publicly condemn acts of violence by their
                  supporters" and "to disarm the perpetrators and bring them to justice."

                  Gourgue's arrest would only worsen the crackdown on democratic freedom,
                  observers said.

                  "This (Gourgue's arrest) may cross the line. There's no rationale to foreign
                  democratic governments of why the Haitian regime should arrest its opponents,"
                  said Georges Fauriol, an analyst at the Center for Strategic and International
                  Studies.

                  "They are reverting to what Aristide's predecessors did -- push opponents aside
                  and arrest them,"

                  Aristide, Haiti's first freely elected leader, rose to power in a grass-roots
                  movement that helped oust Haitian dictator Jean-Claude "Baby-Doc" Duvalier.
                  Aristide himself was overthrown in a military coup but restored to power in a
                  U.S.- led invasion after three years in exile.

                     Copyright 2001 Reuters.