24581: (news) Chamberlain: Haiti-Attack

[sak-pase@bimini.ws]

Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>


  By STEVENSON JACOBS

  PORT-AU-PRINCE, March 28 (AP) -- Gunmen with assault rifles ambushed a
group of police in Haiti's capital on Monday, spraying their car with
bullets in a bold daylight attack that killed two officers and a driver,
officials said.
  The shooting in the volatile Delmas neighborhood of Port-au-Prince
follows several recent attacks on police and a government building that
officials say are aimed at destabilizing the country ahead of key fall
elections.
  Three police officers were riding in a white station wagon when the
attackers opened fire, U.N. spokesman Damian Onses-Cardona said. The car
burst into flames.
  U.N. civilian police said street gangs or member's of Haiti's disbanded
army were likely behind the attack, which came about a week after two U.N.
peacekeepers and two ex-soldiers died in clashes in two rural towns. Last
week, a former military leader called on ex-soldiers to remove their
uniforms and wage "guerrilla war" against U.N. peacekeepers and police.
  The incident was the latest in a spate of recent attacks in the capital.
On Friday, someone lobbed a live grenade into the compound of Haiti's
electoral office, slightly damaging the structure but injuring no one. Days
earlier, gunmen opened fire on the house of Haiti's interim justice
minister, killing a police officer guarding the property.
  The attacks come as the 7,400-strong U.N. force and Haiti's national
police struggle to restore calm to Haiti more than a year after an armed
uprising ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.