25429: (news) Chamberlain: Haiti-Violence (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

                                 Haiti-Violence


   By STEVENSON JACOBS

   PORT-AU-PRINCE, June 17 (AP) -- Police raided a gritty slum teeming with
gangs loyal to ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide Friday, residents
said, accusing the officials of killing two people.
   About 12 police officers stormed the slum of Bel Air shortly after dawn,
firing at several homes, residents said. The slum is the site of frequent
clashes between police, U.N. peacekeepers and pro-Aristide gangs.
   Angry slum dwellers, some armed, later burned a car in protest.
   A 17-year-old girld was killed while running for cover inside her
dilapidated, one-bedroom apartment, said Jude Pierre, 25, her neighbor.
   An Associated Press photographer saw her body on a concrete floor, a
blood-soaked white sheet draped across one leg.
   "The police just came and started shooting in every direction. We had to
run for our lives," said Pierre, standing near the burning car and at least
10 gangsters armed with rifles.
   Samba Boukman, an activist for Aristide's Lavalas Family Party, said
police also shot and killed an unidentified man and removed his body. He
said eight other residents were wounded by gunfire.
   Police and U.N. officials did not return calls seeking comment.
   Several residents, some armed, emerged from their homes after the
shooting and doused a car with gasoline, setting it ablaze as few police
officers watched from a distance. An Associated Press photographer saw
several police shoot toward the car, sending the gunmen and residents
running for cover down trash-strewn side streets.
   The incident came a day after two U.N. troops were wounded in an attack
by armed gangs in Cite Soleil, another slum largely populated by Aristide
supporters.
   The 7,400-strong U.N. force has been criticized for a lack of
aggressiveness in cracking down on militants since the February 2004 armed
uprising that forced Aristide to flee Haiti.