27360: (news) Chamberlain: Haiti-Missionaries Kidnapped (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

   By STEVENSON JACOBS

   PORT-AU-PRINCE, Jan 26 (AP) -- Two French missionaries and two Haitians
were kidnapped near a volatile slum in Haiti's capital, a U.N. official
said Thursday.
   The four were seized on Wednesday as they traveled on a road near Cite
Soleil, a sprawling slum on the outskirts of Port-au-Prince used as a base
by heavily armed gangs blamed for a wave of kidnappings and violence in the
capital, said David Wimhurst, a U.N. spokesman.
   The captors have demanded a ransom, and Haiti's anti-kidnapping squad
was working to secure the hostages' release, said Wimhurst, who did not
identify the two French nationals other than to say one was a priest and
the other a nun. He said he had no information about the identities of the
kidnapped Haitians.
   A wave of kidnappings has plagued the Western Hemisphere's poorest
nation, where criminal gangs have flourished in the aftermath of the
rebellion that toppled President Jean-Bertrand Aristide in February 2004.
   Last month, there were 162 reported kidnap cases in Haiti, and January
has seen 37 so far, Wimhurst said.
   The actual number is probably much higher because victims' families
often prefer to negotiate with kidnappers rather than notify police.
   With Feb. 7 national elections approaching, 9,000 U.N. soldiers and
police have increasingly tried to gain control of Cite Soleil, home to
200,000 people living in squalor and a stronghold of armed gangs allegedly
linked to Aristide.