UPDATE 1-Honduras talks to start, police dissolve protest

Wed Oct 7, 2009 4:24pm EDT

* Foreign ministers, diplomats oversee tentative talks
* Police break up pro-Zelaya march with tear gas (Recasts adding Insulza quote, protest clashes)
By Frank Jack Daniel
TEGUCIGALPA, Oct 7 (Reuters) - Envoys for the de facto leader of Honduras and ousted President Manuel Zelaya were set to meet on Wednesday to seek an end to a crisis started by a June coup, while police and protesters clashed in the streets.
Foreign ministers and diplomats from the Organization of American States will oversee the highest-level dialogue to take place in the poor coffee-production nation since Zelaya was exiled at gunpoint three months ago.
Shortly before the meeting began, police fired volleys of tear gas to clear several hundred people marching past the U.S. embassy to show support for the leftist logging magnate.
Police and soldiers armed with clubs and automatic weapons chased the demonstrators into the center of Tegucigalpa.
At a ceremony to start the talks, OAS chief Jose Miguel Insulza insisted Zelaya's return to power was a non-negotiable demand to end the international isolation Honduras has suffered since the military coup that toppled him.
"Those who thought it was possible to depose a president and normalize life in the country before starting an election campaign should realize that this has not been possible," Insulza said, flanked by representatives of Zelaya and de facto leader Roberto Micheletti.
Honduras has a presidential election scheduled for Nov. 29, but critics say curbs on media and public gatherings imposed by Micheletti mean the campaign will not be fair. The results may not be recognized without a prior agreement including Zelaya.
POLITICAL AMNESTY
Micheletti took power after the June 28 putsch and wants his rival jailed. On Tuesday he said political amnesty was on the table but did not mention a return to office for Zelaya.
Zelaya criticized the police's liberal use of tear gas to break up Wednesday's protest. He also said Micheletti only agreed to the talks to fend off international criticism and keep the de facto government going.
"They do not have the least intention of reverting the coup, they are are just playing for time," he told the Telesur television channel from the Brazilian embassy in Tegucigalpa, where he has been holed up surrounded by troops since slipping back into Honduras two weeks ago.
The crisis echoes Central America's Cold War-era troubles, with political arrests and criticism from rights groups over abuses by gun and club-wielding soldiers and police.
The de facto government says the ouster of Zelaya, forced from his bed into exile by armed soldiers, was legal because he had violated the constitution. They say he planned to try and stay in office longer than his term
Coups and military governments were common in Honduras for most of the 20th Century. U.S. banana importer Sam Zemurray helped bring President Manuel Bonilla back to power in 1912 in return for favorable business conditions.
Pro-Zelaya protests since his return to Honduras led to clashes with security forces that caused dozens of injuries and the death of at least one protester. Honduran rights group Cofadeh says 10 Zelaya supporters have been killed since June in violence linked to the coup. (Additional reporting by Gustavo Palencia, Miguel Angel Gutierrez and Ignacio Badal, editing by Philip Barbara) (For a witness story from embassy, click on [ID:nN05219378]) (For scenarios of possible outcomes click on [ID:nN07480980])