25515: Wharram - news - US scales back Haiti embassy staff amid unrest (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

> From Bruce Wharram <bruce.wharram@sev.org>

Agence France Presse
US scales back Haiti embassy staff amid unrest

Tue Jun 28, 6:51 PM ET

The United States embassy said it was scaling down its operations in Haiti
amid ongoing unrest, while local radio said Haitian police had freed a
hostage from his kidnappers.

Citing security concerns, the US embassy said in a statement that it was
reducing its headcount at the embassy for the second time in a month. A
Haitian employee of the embassy was shot dead Sunday in a Port-au-Prince
neighborhood.

The embassy said the move would close the visa office to immigrants and non
immigrants seeking to travel to the United States. However, the statement
said Haitians requiring urgent medical treatment or students would still be
served by the office.

Separately, local radio said Haitian police had freed businessman Jean
Robert Coles and captured three suspected kidnappers.

Coles told Signal radio he had been held in the basement of a building in
the city's Delmas neighborhood by kidnappers who had demanded 200,000
dollars for his release.

The UN Security Council last Wednesday decided to send more than 1,000 extra
peacekeepers to Haiti in a bid to improve security ahead of elections later
this year in the impoverished, strife-torn Caribbean nation.

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