26744: (news) Chamberlain: Haiti-Kidnappings (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

   By ALFRED de MONTESQUIOU

   PORT-AU-PRINCE, Dec 2 (AP) -- Gunmen hijacked a school bus carrying 14
children Thursday, and U.S. missionary was kidnapped while driving outside
Haiti's capital, police said.
   The bus was taking the children to school when several armed men stopped
it, boarded it and drove off down a main road going to the west of
Port-au-Prince, the capital, Police Commissioner Francois Henry Doussous
told The Associated Press.
   He said they're working to secure the release of the children, but did
not provide a motive or any other details.
   Also Thursdasy, gunmen shot and kidnapped 44-year-old U.S. missionary
Philip Schneider as he was driving on a road north of the capital, Doussous
said.
   Doussous said he spoke with the kidnappers of Schneider by phone and
that they are demanding $300,000 for his release. The kidnappers even put
Schneider, who works for a group called Glow Ministry, on the phone with
the police commander.
   "I just talked to him on the phone. A bullet fractured his arm but he
say's he is fine," said Doussous, who heads Haiti's anti-kidnapping unit.
   Doussous said police believe the kidnappers brought Schneider to the
Port-au-Prince slum of Cite Soleil, a base for armed gangs blamed for much
of the recent violence in the capital.
   Details on Schneider's group were not immediately available. Police said
they did not know his hometown.
   Haiti, the Western Hemisphere's poorest nation, has a long history of
instability. Elections are slated for Jan. 8, to elect a president and
parliament. A rebellion ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide in February
2004. The former president lives in exile in South Africa.
   "We do not consider these kidnaps to be politically motivated," said
Doussous. "This is purely criminal activity, the gangs need money."
   Police and the U.N. peacekeeping force in Haiti suspect gangs allegedly
close to Aristide of preparing violence to disrupt the national elections.