26987: (news) Holmstead: Contingent salutes homeward-bound casket (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

FROM:  John Holmstead


Contingent salutes homeward-bound casket of retired
Mountie killed in Haiti

MARIA BABBAGE
Wed Dec 21, 8:11 PM ET

OTTAWA (CP) - The body of a retired Mountie fatally
shot in one of Haiti's most dangerous areas was being
flown to Toronto late Wednesday after a contingent
representing 30 nations saluted his flag-draped
casket.

Mark Bourque was killed this week while driving a
fellow Canadian to the airport to catch a flight home
for the holidays. Insp. John White from the RCMP's
international peacekeeping branch said from Haiti that
Bourque's remains were being flown home on a
Challenger jet. There was no immediate word on funeral
arrangements.

Bourque, from Stoneham, Que., died in hospital Tuesday
morning, less than two hours after someone opened fire
on the unmarked rental vehicle he was driving. His
casket was draped in the Canadian and UN flags as it
was loaded aboard the plane.

The 57-year-old father of two likely died in a botched
kidnap attempt as he was driving another Canadian to
the Port-au-Prince airport, said David Wimhurst,
spokesman for the United Nations Stabilization Mission
in Haiti.

The shooting occurred in Cite Soleil, a volatile slum
in the Haitian capital that is controlled by gangs and
where shootings occur daily.

Bourque died from his injuries despite efforts by the
man accompanying him and by peacekeepers who arrived
in an armoured personnel carrier from a nearby UN
checkpoint.

The soldiers returned fire and managed to evacuate the
two Canadians to a nearby Argentinian military
hospital run by the UN, Wimhurst said.

Bourque's companion, also a former RCMP officer, was
not hurt and administered first aid to Bourque, he
added. Neither UN nor Canadian officials would
identify the man, who is "pretty traumatized,"
Wimhurst said.

"I don't think they were targeted because they were UN
people," he said.

"They were probably targeted because they were
travelling down that road - that very dangerous road -
which is an area where the kidnappers like practising
kidnapping."

Col. Amadou Mbaye, deputy head of the UN police, said
nothing indicated the gunmen had targeted Bourque -
who was wearing a uniform but driving an unmarked
rental car - because he was UN personnel.

"It seems this is more like an attempted kidnapping
that went wrong," Mbaye said.

The bullets penetrated the vehicle and tore off parts
of the door, fatally injuring Bourque, Wimhurst said.

"Normally, we advise people not to go there, and we're
speculating right now that they got there by
accident," he said.

"They were on their way to the airport, and that road
goes to the airport, but it's not the route that
anyone normally takes."

The UN's military police will conduct an investigation
into the incident, he said. Part of the probe will
include an analysis of the bullets, which officials
believe will help identify the weapons used and lead
back to the shooters.

"Eventually, I think we'll be able to track them down
through information and intelligence and so on,"
Wimhurst said.

"But this is a long-term thing. There isn't going to
be any short, quick answer to this one."

Interim Prime Minister Gerard Latortue said he hoped
"this tragic death will lead our allies to step up
their efforts to eradicate the gang problem."

He called for the UN to conduct a large sweep of the
sprawling slum where 200,000 people live, even at the
cost of "collateral damage." He he'd been requesting
such an initiative for months, asking: "How many more
lost lives will it take them?"

UN special envoy Juan Gabriel Valdes said troops would
focus on Cite Soleil, while trying to avoid civilian
casualties.

Bourque, a 35-year veteran of the RCMP, left for Haiti
in October with 23 other Canadian police experts as
part of a team assembled by a non-profit agency to
help train the Haitian National Police during the
elections, slated to begin Jan. 8.

Bourque was a veteran detective who at one time was
involved in investigating organized crime in Quebec.
He reportedly helped set up the RCMP's Proceeds of
Crime Unit.

"He was an extremely hard worker," said Jean Lafaille,
a Canadian police officer in Haiti, adding it was
Bourque's expertise in fighting organized crime that
had brought him to the island.

"I felt it was a privilege that he had come to share
his energy and his expertise with our contingent."

About 100 regular and about 25 retired Canadian police
officers are working with the UN in the troubled
island.

The UN police force there, made up of about 1,600
officers from 33 countries, is commanded by Chief
Supt. R. Graham Muir of the RCMP.

Five UN peacekeepers have died in action since June
2004.

Copyright © 2005 Canadian Press

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