Haitians Protest For U.N. Help Collecting Clandestine Arsenals

More than 1,000 demonstrators set up barricades of burning tires Saturday, demanding that U.N. troops help President Jean-Bertrand Aristide’s government confiscate illegal weapons.

The demonstrations erupted in a slum after Aristide used a speech at the funeral of a slain legislator to repeat his demand for foreign help. The demonstrators blocked intersections, but dispersed after several hours.

The president has faulted the U.N. force for not carrying out a thorough campaign to seize clandestine arsenals. The United Nations, which replaced a U.S.-led force that restored Aristide to power in October 1994, says it has helped Haitian police whenever asked.

“The heavy weaponry of the international community is there to accompany Haitian police in their disarmament of all criminals, terrorists, and extremists,” Aristide said at the funeral of Rep. Jean-Hubert Feuille.

Otherwise, he told mourners, “we’ll tell” the multinational peacekeeping force that its relationship with Haiti “is over and done with.”

Police haven’t caught the gunmen who killed Feuille, 31, after blocking his jeep Tuesday.