PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) – About 1,000 supporters of ousted former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide marched through the Haitian capital Thursday to demand his return from exile and protest the presence of UN peacekeepers.

The peaceful demonstration marked the largest show of support in months for Aristide, who was forced out of Haiti in February 2004 amid a violent uprising and has been living in South Africa.

“This is a gift for the end of the year for President Aristide,” said Deshommes Presengloire, a spokesman for Aristide’s Lavalas party.

Carrying photographs of the bespectacled former priest, demonstrators gathered at a church where Aristide once preached and walked to the National Palace, accompanied by vans blasting music and a police escort.

Some of the protesters accused UN peacekeeping troops of firing indiscriminately during gunbattles with gangsters, killing and wounding civilians. The UN denies the charge and says its troops, which arrived in June 2004, only shoot when attacked.