Two dead in Honduras as Zelaya attempts return (Roundup)

Jul 5, 2009, 23:42 GMT

Tegucigalpa - At least two people were killed and two others were injured Sunday in clashes between soldiers and hundreds of supporters of ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya at Toncontin airport in Tegucigalpa.

Police confirmed the deaths and said the clashes erupted when Zelaya's supporters attempted to occupy the runway. Television footage of the confrontation included the sounds of gunfire.

Zelaya told Venezuela-based Telesur television channel that he was approaching Honduran airspace, despite warnings.

Earlier Sunday, the Honduran government installed after the June 28 coup said it had prevented the return to Honduras of the democratically elected Zelaya.

Alfredo San Martin, Honduras' civil aviation chief, said the plane was diverted to El Salvador. He said that the president of any other country wishing to enter Honduras must have 'relevant authorization' from Honduran authorities.

The interim Honduran government had said that it would not allow Zelaya to return and had vowed to arrest the ousted president if he did reach Honduran territory.

'I have ordered that his return cannot be allowed, come what may,' Enrique Cortez, designated as foreign minister of the interim government, said early Sunday.

Zelaya was flying on a private plane - originally bound for Tegucigalpa - with Miguel d'Escoto, a Nicaraguan diplomat and president of the UN General Assembly.

'As president, (I intend) to go accompany my people and ask, logically, for calm, non-violence,' Zelaya said before his departure from Washington.

A second delegation headed by Jose Miguel Insulza, secretary- general of the Organization of American states (OAS), with presidents Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner of Argentina, Rafael Correa of Ecuador and Fernando Lugo of Paraguay was due to fly directly to El Salvador later Sunday.

'We will be in San Salvador, waiting to see if (Zelaya) can land (in Tegucigalpa) and would like us to be there, or, otherwise, if he cannot land, we will wait for him in San Salvador,' Correa said in a press conference.

All roads leading to Toncontin airport in Tegucigalpa were being blocked by police, and most flights had reportedly been suspended. Still, thousands of supporters of Zelaya gathered around the airport.

Hours earlier in Washington, the OAS voted unanimously to suspend Honduras' membership over last week's coup. The vote by 33 member countries made Honduras the second country to be suspended from the hemispheric bloc, after Cuba in 1962, which may subject Honduras to cuts in economic aid as well as political isolation.

Not all countries in the Americas thought that travelling now was the best decision. The US, Canada, Mexico, Costa Rica, Panama and Caribbean nations expressed reservations over the lack of sufficient security guarantees, and said it could worsen the unrest in the Central American country.

Insulza, who visited Tegucigalpa himself Friday, said that Zelaya would face serious risks and should try to obtain 'guarantees' for his safety before travelling.

'There are risks. It is risky, the risk of being arrested and the risk of clashes,' Insulza said. 'It is not a safe return.'

Insulza stressed that Zelaya's return would be purely his own decision, as the OAS took no official position.

Zelaya was ousted in a coup by soldiers acting on orders from the country's Supreme Court, ostensibly to prevent him from attempting to change the constitution to seek a second presidential term.