24640: (news) Chamberlain: Haiti-UN Raid

[sak-pase@bimini.ws]

Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>


  By STEVENSON JACOBS

  PORT-AU-PRINCE, April 1 (AP) -- U.N. troops in armored vehicles guarded
the outskirts of a lawless seaside slum in Haiti's capital Friday, ahead of
a promised crackdown on gang fighting that some people fear could disrupt
fall elections.
  U.N. officials said the operation in the Cite Soleil district could last
days but refused to say when they might send their troops into the heart of
the shantytown, which is a hotbed of gang violence between loyalists and
opponents of ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.
  One man was killed Thursday and at least six were wounded in gang
shootings.
  "We now control the perimeter of the area," said a U.N. military
spokesman, Lt. Col. Elouafi Boulbars. "One way or another we will cover the
whole district."
  Boulbars said Jordanian peacekeepers set up 21 checkpoints at entrances
to the slum and were searching cars and pedestrians for illegal guns.
Associated Press reporters saw a few units in armored vehicles making
sweeps along the slum's edge but conducting no searches.
  Near the slum's docks, where Jordanian troops maintain a small base, two
young men armed with AK-47s and drinking beer roamed in plain sight.
Another gang member with a revolver stopped a carload of journalists before
allowing them to enter, indicating gangs still controlled much of the area.
  The planned crackdown, the first major offensive by U.N. forces in
Port-au-Prince, comes amid a surge in violence that has killed hundreds
across Haiti since September. Officials fear the violence could undermine
public trust in general elections in October and November.
  The 7,400-soldier Brazilian-commanded U.N. force vowed to confront the
armed groups after being criticized for inaction more than a year after an
uprising ousted Aristide.
  On March 20, U.N. troops fought with bands of ex-soldiers in two rural
towns, leaving two peacekeepers dead -- the first killed during the
10-month-old U.N. mission. Two ex-soldiers also died.
  Experts say disarming the well-armed gangs in the winding streets of
Cite Soleil will be far more difficult for peacekeepers than dealing with
the bands of former soldiers in the countryside, which are loosely
organized groups of old men with rusty rifles.
  "It's like going into an urban jungle," U.N. spokesman Damian
Onses-Cardona said. "You cannot enter Cite Soleil with tanks. It requires a
more targeted action."