27341: (news) Chamberlain: Haiti-Slum Protest (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

   PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) -- About 300 protesters, including top gang
leaders, marched Tuesday through a bullet-scarred slum on the edge of
Haiti's capital, accusing U.N. troops of shooting civilians and demanding
polling sites for Feb. 7 elections.
   Chanting "We want peace!" and displaying their new voter ID cards, the
protesters shuffled through Cite Soleil and past a U.N. military base.
   Tensions have surged in the vast, seaside slum amid battles between
armed street gangs and U.N. peacekeepers sent to restore order after a
bloody revolt pushed former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide from power in
February 2004.
   U.N. officials say gangs use Cite Soleil as a base to carry out
kidnappings in the capital, Port-au-Prince. Electoral officials have said
they plan to move voting stations out of the slum as a security precaution.
   People in the slum, a stronghold of Aristide allies, accuse peacekeepers
of firing randomly during nighttime assaults.
   "They treat us like animals, not humans. Kids walking down the street
are getting shot everyday," said a gang leader known as General Tou Tou.
   David Wimhurst, a U.N. spokesman, denied peacekeepers fired into the
slum unprovoked.
   "If we fire, it's because we're fired upon, and this is a daily
occurrence," Wimhurst said.