27032: Craig (news) Jordanian Peacekeeper Mourned As Martyr (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

Jordanian Peacekeeper Mourned As Martyr
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: December 30, 2005
Filed at 1:18 p.m. ET

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) -- A Jordanian officer who was killed while serving 
as a U.N. peacekeeper in Haiti was revered as a martyr on Friday as he received 
military honors at a service in the capital.

Capt. Youssef Algader was shot in the head Dec. 24 while patrolling a main road 
on the outskirts of the highly volatile Cite Soleil slum. The body of Algader, 
who was 31, married and had three children, was to be flown back to his village 
of Zarqua in Jordan on Friday.

''I pray for Allah the almighty to greet our martyr in paradise,'' said Col. 
Mohammed Sabayleh, who commands the 1st Battalion in Cite Soleil, where Algader 
served.

Algader's casket, draped in a blue U.N. flag, was then turned toward the holy 
Muslim city of Mecca.

At the brief ceremony, a fellow Jordanian officer said Algader was distributing 
food to civilians an hour before shooting broke out in Cite Soleil. A battalion 
of 1,500 Jordanian peacekeepers in armored vehicles has pledged to reclaim the 
slum from heavily armed gangs.

In a speech, U.N. special envoy to Haiti Juan Gabriel Valdes paid tribute to 
Algader and his fellow peacekeepers.

''I wish to insist on our deep respect and gratitude for the work of the 
Jordanian peacekeepers in Haiti,'' Valdes said.

Algader is the second Jordanian peacekeeper to be killed in or near Cite Soleil 
in recent months, and the seventh peacekeeper killed in action in Haiti.

The 9,000 strong U.N. mission came to stabilize Haiti in June 2004, shortly 
after the ouster of former president Jean Bernard Aristide, and ahead of 
national elections due next January.

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-Haiti-Peacekeeper-Funeral.html