24241: (news) Chamberlain: Haiti-Violence (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

   By PETER PRENGAMAN

   PORT-AU-PRINCE, Feb 10 (AP) -- Police hunting a rebel leader stormed a
compound used by Haiti's disbanded army Thursday, exchanging gunfire with
defenders, officials said. A grade school girl was killed in the crossfire.
   Nearly 200 U.N. peacekeepers surrounded the compound as police firing
assault rifles moved inside to arrest Remissainthe Ravix, a leader of the
rebellion that ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide last year, said
Cmdr. Carlos Chagas Braga, a spokesman for the 7,500-member U.N.
peacekeeping mission.
   He said that the U.N. troops did not fire any shots, said
   Police accuse Ravix of killing four policemen Sunday, while the interim
government has said he is wanted for directing attacks on several police
stations in December. Ravix has denied the accusations.
   Police led two people away in handcuffs, but refused to say who they
were. Braga said neither suspect was Ravix.
   A young girl was shot and killed in the crossfire, Braga and witnesses
said. Residents said she was shot as she left school about a block in front
of the camp.
   Tensions have been building between Haiti's interim government, the
former soldiers who want to keep their weapons until the government
formally reinstates the army, and U.N. troops who don't want the former
soldiers patrolling the country armed.
   Aristide disbanded the army in 1995, four years after he was ousted in a
coup. A U.S.-led military intervention restored him to power in 1994. He
was forced into exile a second time last year when ex-soldiers joined
rebels in the three-week revolt. Aristide is now living in South Africa.