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REUTERS

The protesters, from a group called Voices for Haiti, carried symbolic gifts intended to honor Haitian peasants and protest U.S. policy in Haiti -- rice, a ceramic Creole pig, Haitian coffee and a plastic bag filled with incinerator ash.

``We are outraged by policies of the U.S. government and the international financial institutions that cause misery and starvation among the poor and exclude the Haitian people from life and death decisions,'' protester Scott Wright said.

The protesters demanded that documents taken by the U.S. military during the 1994 U.S.-led intervention that restored deposed President Jean-Bertrand Aristide to power be returned to the Haitian government.

Aristide, Haiti's first freely elected president, was ousted in September 1991 by a military coup and returned to power following three years in exile. Human rights groups blame the military for the deaths of at least 3,000 people during the coup years.

The Front for the Advancement and Progress of Haiti, FRAPH, a paramilitary group held responsible for many of the deaths, is believed to have documented many of the human rights abuses.

The documents are held at the U.S. embassy in Port-au- Prince, according to U.S. officials. Names of U.S. citizens have been blacked out under the 1974 Privacy Act.

Haitian officials are welcome to review the redacted documents, according to an embassy official. But Haiti has demanded their return.

``The U.S. Government should return the documents to the Haitian government in their original condition to shed light on the coup era,'' Tom Lebach, a member of Voices for Haiti, said.

\The delegation also asked for U.S. help to return over 4,000 metric tons of Philadelphia incinerator ash dumped on Haiti's northern shores in December 1987 by a U.S. company. The activists say the waste, carried to Haiti by the cargo ship Khian Sea, is laced with toxic chemicals.

The U.S. ambassador was not available to meet with the protesters, who spoke to embassy officials.

``The embassy is always glad to meet with American citizens and hear their point of view. But as it would be a private meeting we would not have any comment on the meeting,'' an embassy official said.