5 MORE DIE IN BOLIVIA PROTESTS AFTER EMERGENCY IS DECLARED

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS LA PAZ, Bolivia, April 9 -- Protests and
police mutinies that have left eight people dead continued in cities
around Bolivia today, after the government's declaration of a state of
emergency this weekend inflamed anger over the country's worsening
economic troubles. Tensions were centered in Cochabamba, the country's
third largest city, where a wave of protests over government plans to
raise rates for drinking water began a week ago.

Thousands of angry farmers regrouped on the outskirts of the city and
in the main square today, a day after the police battled demonstrators
with tear gas and rubber bullets.

Anticipating a serious confrontation, the government flew in soldiers
from other parts of the country. No serious clashes were reported.

Most of the violence took place in the Andean foothill town of
Achacachi, in the west, where five people were killed as soldiers
tried to remove roadblocks that have disrupted transport in much of
the country for nearly a week.

The farmers there took over and ransacked government buildings as
troop reinforcements were sent in this afternoon to try to control the
unrest.

Two farmers, two soldiers and a police officer were killed today, a
government spokesman, Ronnie MacLean, said. Eight people have died
since the weekend.

The escalation in antigovernment action was unexpected and reflected
Bolivians' disgust over rising water rates, unemployment and other
economic difficulties plaguing the Andean country of eight million
people. The economic crisis was blamed in part on the government's war
on cocaine trafficking.

The destruction of more than half of the country's coca-leaf
production has left thousands of Quechua and Aymara Indian farmers
without a livelihood and depressed the economy in regions where
cocaine trafficking once thrived.

Leaders of the coca farmers helped organize the protests that have
paralyzed Cochabamba since last Monday.

Police officers too have felt the economic pinch, and today hundreds
of officers in La Paz and Santa Cruz, the second largest city, took
over their own headquarters and jails and demanded a 50 percent
increase in pay. The strike turned violent in La Paz, with police
officers firing tear gas at soldiers, who fired their automatic
weapons in the air.

In both cities the strikes were over in hours, with the police winning
their salary increases. No violence was reported in Santa Cruz, but
the army was called in to control the streets of that eastern city.

Under emergency provisions, the government is allowed to arrest and
confine protest leaders without a warrant, impose restrictions on
travel and political activity and establish a curfew. In Cochabamba,
authorities took control of the city's radio stations to prevent
independent reporting.

Today a commission headed by Vice President Jorge Quiroga was en route
to the city to try and negotiate an end to the conflict, Mr. MacLean
said.