24921: (news) Chamberlain: Gunmen kidnap Haitian political leader - witnesses (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

     By Joseph Guyler Delva

     PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti, April 28 (Reuters) - Gunmen kidnapped a Haitian
political leader on Thursday, witnesses said, raising more doubts about the
prospect for elections set for October and November.
     Dr. Jean Enold Buteau, head of the Movement for National
Reconstruction and brother of Education Minister Pierre Buteau, was
abducted in the parking lot of his medical clinic in the Haitian capital,
Port-au-Prince, the witnesses said.
     Buteau's vehicle was abandoned on the street, police sources said.
     The poorest country in the Americas has been plagued by political and
gang violence since its former president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, was
ousted in February 2004.
     At least 675 people have died in the violence since September, and the
number of abductions for ransom of professional and business people has
increased in recent months.
     Jessie Coicou, a spokeswoman for the Haitian National Police, said
some police officers are members of criminal groups responsible for the
recent spate of kidnappings.
     "We call on the population to denounce them to the authorities,"
Coicou said.
     Politicians and observers have questioned the ability of Haiti's
appointed interim government to hold national elections as planned. Ballots
are scheduled on Oct. 9 for local offices and on Nov. 13 for the presidency
and legislative posts.
     Despite the presence of a U.N. peacekeeping force sent to Haiti to
restore stability following Aristide's departure, some areas of the country
are controlled by members of the rebel force that ousted him.
     Evans Paul, a leader of the Democratic Unity Convention party, said
the security problem should not prevent Haiti from holding elections.
     "We should not capitulate in the face of bandits who want to foil the
transition process that goes through elections," Paul said.
     Others say the elections should be postponed because of violence and
lack of preparations.
     "How can we go to to elections, how can we campaign in such insecure
conditions?" asked Pierre Prince of the Haitian Democratic Reformer
Movement.