26827: (news) Chamberlain: Haiti-Peacekeepers (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

   By ALFRED de MONTESQUIOU

   PORT-AU-PRINCE, Dec 8 (AP) -- The United Nations acknowledged Thursday
that its peacekeepers likely opened fire on a car full of Haitian police
officers this week, wounding two.
   According to a preliminary investigation, five uniformed officers were
driving toward a U.N. checkpoint on Monday when the peacekeepers opened
fire, said U.N. spokesman Damian Onses-Cardona. He showed reporters
photographs of the blue car, which had official license plates but no other
markings.
   "The first elements of the investigation tend to show that U.N.
peacekeepers could have done the shooting," Onses-Cardona said.
   Peacekeepers may have confused the police with armed gang members whom
they are fighting to gain control of the seaside slum of Cite Soleil,
Onses-Cardona said.
   Cite Soleil, where gunbattles between peacekeepers and gangs take place
almost daily, remains the most insecure place in Haiti ahead of national
elections scheduled for Jan. 8.
   Haitian police do not enter the slum, which a battalion of 1,500
Jordanian peacekeepers in armored vehicles has pledged to reclaim from the
gangs.
   One of the two wounded Haitian police officers remained hospitalized in
stable condition Thursday.
   "Even though this incident is appalling, the tight collaboration between
U.N. peacekeepers and Haitian police will continue," Onses-Cardona said.
The two forces currently are studying a joint plan to combat kidnappings,
which have surged in areas near Cite Soleil, he said.
   In a separate case, the U.N. said it had created a commission to
investigate several Jordanian peacekeepers accused of misconduct during an
October patrol in Cite Soleil. Residents complained that the troops roughly
handled civilians and inappropriately touched women while conducting body
searches.
   The U.N. said it appeared peacekeepers had "reacted with excess and
undertaken inappropriate body searches" in the slum.
   Meanwhile, representatives of Haiti and the European Union Thursday
signed an $88 million deal for road-building and repair grants.
   The aid will go to building about 60 miles of new roads, mainly in
Haiti's north and near the neighboring Dominican Republic.
   Interim Prime Minister Gerard Latortue said he hopes the improvements
will help reduce the hundreds of deadly accidents each year on Haiti's
crumbling roads.
   Separately, Haiti's Supreme Court rejected an appeal seeking to block
Dumarsais Simeus, the Haitian-born owner of a food services company in
Texas, from running for president.
   Supreme Court judge Michel Donatien emphasized that the ruling would not
lead to Simeus' reinstatement on the ballot -- a decision that is up to the
government-appointed nationality commission that has already declared him
ineligible.