FOCUS-RIOTS IN MAURITIUS CLOSE SHOPS, BUSINESSES

PORT LOUIS, Feb 23 (Reuters) - Banks, businesses and schools in the
Mauritian capital were closed on Tuesday, the third day of protest riots in
which at least one man has died.

Police advised workers to go home because of the riots in a poor suburb of
Port Louis, sparked by the death in police custody on Sunday of a popular
local reggae singer.

"It is better for workers in Port Louis to leave the capital because we
don't know how far the situation could deteriorate," a senior police
official told Reuters.

All banks and businesses in the Indian Ocean island's capital had closed by
Tuesday afternoon, witnesses said.

The riots began on Sunday night, when hundreds of demonstrators clashed with
police in the Roche-Bois suburb and in Rose Hill and Beau-Bassin towns,
burning vehicles and ransacking police stations.

The protesters also blocked the capital's main northbound highway, forcing
schools to close on Tuesday.

The death in police custody on Sunday of Joseph Reginald Topize, or Kaya,
sparked the riots. Kaya was arrested on Thursday after smoking marijuana at
a rally to decriminalise the drug organised by the small Republican Movement
party.

Newspapers said police shot dead a second reggae singer, Berger Agathe,
during rioting on Monday.

Police on Tuesday acknowledged they might have shot Agathe and suspended the
officer who ordered police to open fire.

Prime Minister Navinchandra Ramgoolam appealed for calm on Monday evening in
a statement on state media.

"I appeal to the Roche-Bois people for calm and I give a formal guarantee
that transparency will be the main factor in the process to determine the
real cause of the death of Kaya," Ramgoolam said.

Residents of Roche-Bois, many of whom are ethnic Creoles, say police killed
Kaya and cite an autopsy report which, according to newspapers, said he died
of a fractured skull. Police denied this and promised a second autopsy on
Tuesday.

Creoles, the mixed blood descendants of former slaves, account for up to 30
percent of the population of the Indian Ocean island and are seen as an
underprivileged community.

Tourism and sugar are key foreign exchange earners on Mauritius, an island
of 1.1 million people, which also has a strong banking sector.