23834: (pub) Chamberlain: New bloodshed erupts as Haiti police, gangs clash (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

     By Joseph Guyler Delva

    PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti, Nov 19 (Reuters) - Up to a dozen people were
killed in raids by police on armed gangs in slum areas of the Haitian
capital blamed for a recent wave of violence, eyewitnesses said.
     Morgue workers said on Friday they had received five bodies after
police swooped in a hunt for gangs in shantytowns where support for ousted
former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide remains strong.
     Slum residents said at least 12 people had been killed on Thursday,
while a Reuters correspondent saw six bodies, including those of two women.
     "There was a shootout between hooded police in black uniforms and
armed gangs. Those two people who were passing by got killed," said a
resident of the Sans Fil area bordering the lawless slum of Bel-Air,
pointing to two corpses.
     It was unclear who was responsible for most of the killings, which
capped 10 weeks of escalating tensions between the interim government of
Prime Minister Gerard Latortue, backed by police, and supporters of
Aristide.
     Since early September, at least 200 people have died, and dozens have
been arrested in raids on Port-au-Prince's gritty slums by police with
support from a Brazilian-led U.N. peacekeeping force.
     The government, appointed after Aristide was forced to flee on Feb. 29
amid an armed revolt and U.S. and French pressure to quit, blames his
Lavalas Family party for fomenting violence.
     Lavalas blames the government for targeting its members.
     The violence threatens the success of the U.N. mission to help the
poorest country in the Americas emerge from years of political turmoil and
recover from February's bloody revolt.
     While police and gangs clashed in the slums, the U.N. force dealt with
another source of tension -- disbanded soldiers who led the revolt against
Aristide and who are now demanding the reestablishment of the army and 10
years of back pay.
     Brazilian and Sri Lankan U.N. forces in armored vehicles prevented the
former soldiers from staging a parade on Thursday after they turned up with
semi-automatic rifles.
     The soldiers, once hailed by Prime Minster Latortue as freedom
fighters, branded government officials as "traitors."
     "Latortue has sold the country to foreigners. He prefers foreign
military to the Haitian army that created this nation," said one of their
leaders, Remissainthe Ravix. "We will never hand over our weapons; we'd
rather die with them."