25450: (news) Chamberlain: Canada-Haiti (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

   OTTAWA, June 26 (AP) -- The Canadian government on Tuesday issued a
travel advisory for Haiti, warning its citizens to avoid visiting the
strife-ravaged island nation.
   The advisory comes after a Montreal woman said she was kidnapped, burned
with candles and beaten there until her family paid a ransom.
   "Canadians (should) not travel to Haiti unless they have critical or
compelling business or family reasons," said Foreign Affairs spokesman
Sebastien Theberge.
   Haiti has been in turmoil since former president Jean-Bertrand Aristide
was forced from office following a violent uprising in February 2004.
Kidnappings are the latest trend in the violence, with the country
destabilized and awaiting elections scheduled for fall. At least 130 people
were kidnapped in Port-au-Prince in April alone.
   Meanwhile, U.N. officials said Jean-Marie Guehenno, the U.N.
undersecretary-general for peacekeeping operations, visit Haiti on
Wednesday to review the U.N. peacekeeping mission's efforts to combat gang
violence threatening to undermine elections later this year.
   His five-day trip comes amid increasing complaints that the 7,400-strong
U.N. force has been ineffective in combatting politically aligned street
gangs since the revlot.
   U.N. officials say peacekeepers have been increasingly cracking down on
pro- and anti-Aristide gangs, including an offensive last week in which two
Peruvian troops were injured by gunfire.