Haiti presidential adviser, guard shot and killed April 3, 2000 (Reuters)

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti -- A pro-government radio station owner who served as special adviser to President Rene Preval was shot and killed along with a security guard outside the station Monday, local media reported.

Jean Leopold Dominique, 69, director and owner of Radio Haiti Inter, was shot several times in the head and chest as he arrived for work at the station on a busy street in the capital, Port-au-Prince. Dominique, a longtime political activist, died shortly afterward at a hospital, the station reported.

A security guard working at the station also was fatally shot, station workers said.

Preval, Prime Minister Jacques-Edouard Alexis and former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide all associated with the Lavalas Family party, rushed to the hospital where Dominique died but did not immediately comment.

The motive for the shooting was unknown. The attack comes amid rising tensions and almost daily, street demonstrations protesting the Preval government's failure to hold elections.

Preval has ruled by decree since January 1999, when he dissolved parliament to end an 18-month political stalemate and installed a new Prime Minister and cabinet.

Haiti has not held legislative elections since a 1997 ballot was annulled because of widespread fraud. Opponents believe the government is trying to delay legislative elections until the end of 2000 when they would be held along with a presidential vote.

Aristide is expected to run for and win the presidency, and holding the two elections together could help members of Aristide's Lavalas Family, party wins parliamentary seats on his coat tails. "This is a big blow for the democratic struggle in Haiti. Radio Haiti Inter was one of the stations that gave us a chance to speak," political activist Marcel Mondesir told Reuters.

"The death of Jean Dominique means we must mobilize, organize and take all legal action to defend ourselves because the forces of evil are descending on us," said Mondesir, a member of the Resistance Coordination of Grand Anse, a party linked to Aristide's Lavalas Family party.

COMMENT

A prominent Haitien saying...."They already had their suits on."

This covers situations in which someone has another person killed, then arrives on site to mourn the loss before anyone else can manage the trip.