26799: (news) Chamberlain: Official of Aristide's party kidnapped in Haiti (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

     By Joseph Guyler Delva

     PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti, Dec 6 (Reuters) - A senior official of ousted
Haitian president Jean-Bertrand Aristide's party has been kidnapped and
attempts to pay a ransom for his release failed after another gang stole
the ransom money, party officials said on Tuesday.
     Emmanuel Cantave of Aristide's Lavalas Family party was seized by
gunmen on Saturday, becoming the first high-profile Lavalas official to be
targeted in a wave of kidnappings sweeping the impoverished and turbulent
Caribbean nation as it lurches toward elections next year.
     Cantave's abductors initially demanded $200,000, but reduced their
ransom demand to $10,000 during telephone negotiations, said Francky Exius,
a former legislator who has been leading the talks with the abductors.
     Party colleagues collected $7,000 and sent it to the kidnappers, but a
different group of criminals intercepted the money and stole it, Exius told
Reuters.
     "It was very difficult to collect $7,000. Now that the money has gone
to the wrong people, we don't know what we're going to do," said Exius, who
believes his colleague is being held in the sprawling Port-au-Prince slum
of Cite Soleil, long regarded as a stronghold of support for Aristide and
Lavalas.
     In the past week, a radio journalist, a U.S. missionary, 11
schoolchildren and about a dozen other people have been kidnapped. All were
released after ransoms were paid.
     Police say over a thousand kidnappings have taken place since March,
despite the presence of over 7,000 Brazilian-led U.N. peacekeepers and
international police meant to ensure stability and order in the aftermath
of Aristide's ouster.
     A former Roman Catholic priest initially hailed as a champion of
Haiti's fragile democracy, Aristide faced increasing accusations of
despotism and corruption. He fled Haiti in February 2004 after a monthlong
armed revolt and under U.S. and French pressure to quit.
     The U.N. envoy to Haiti, Juan Gabriel Valdes, said the international
force could not on its own establish order and security in Haiti's wretched
slums, where gangs rule unchallenged, families sleep in shifts because they
have so little room and most get by on less than $2 a day.
     "The security situation in those places where people live in
impossible conditions cannot be solved only by a foreign military force,"
Valdes said.
     "It should be solved with the cooperation from the population who live
there and by providing social and economic assistance to change the
conditions in which people live."
     Gang violence has been on the rise as the country of 8 million
prepares to hold presidential and legislative elections on Jan. 8, with a
run-off set for Feb. 15 -- the first elections since Aristide left for
exile in South Africa.
     "To say the truth, the security situation is disturbing," the top U.S.
diplomat in Haiti, Timothy Carney, told Reuters on Tuesday. He said the
U.N. force and the Haitian police were working on plans to guarantee
security during the election.