28420: (news) Chamberlain: Haiti gang holds, then releases Brazilian officer

[corbetre@webster.edu]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

     By Joseph Guyler Delva and Tom Brown

     PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti, May 18 (Reuters) - A gang that controls Haiti's
largest and most violent slum took a Brazilian army colonel hostage on
Thursday and threatened to kill him to thwart what the gang's leader said
was an attempt by U.N. peacekeepers to arrest him.
     Tensions were flaring in Cite Soleil when two Reuters reporters
seeking to interview the gang leader, known as Commander Evans, came across
the hostage in the teeming shantytown.
     Brazilian Col. Odair, who declined to give his first name, was being
held by dozens of Evans' young followers.
     Several, speaking Creole, said loudly he would be killed if Evans,
whom they believed had been detained by Brazilian peacekeepers, was not
freed immediately.
     Odair was set free after being held for at least two hours in barren
storefront painted with images of Ernesto 'Che" Guevara and former
President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, who was toppled by an armed revolt in
February 2004.
     "I'm being held hostage," Odair said softly into his cell phone
shortly before being ordered to sit on a bench and remove his helmet and
open his flak jacket.
     One gang member crouching over the colonel put his fingers around his
skull menacingly after Odair removed his helmet.
     The colonel was not allowed to speak to the Reuters reporters, though
he did say briefly that there had been a misunderstanding between
peacekeepers and Evans' self-described soldiers.
     Several of Haiti's disparate armed gangs have offered to lay down
their weapons after February's election of President Rene Preval, who took
office on Sunday. But none has disarmed so far, and they remain defiant in
the face of the U.N. mission in Haiti, which is comprises about 9,000
soldiers and civilian police.
     Thursday's incident came a day after Jordanian peacekeepers in Cite
Soleil -- home to at least 300,000 people -- turned over command of the
area to a Brazilian force.
     U.N. spokesman David Wimhurst denied that Evans, who features high on
the Haitian National Police's most-wanted list, had been targeted for
arrest.
     Wimhurst said the Brazilians had prearranged a meeting which went off
as planned, but led to rumors that Evans had been arrested.
     Evans, however, told Reuters he had been bundled into an armored
personnel carrier and held against his will.
     "They wanted to arrest me," he said. "They put me into the APC and
they wanted to take me to their base but the population intervened and
prevented that from happening.
     "All we want for this country is peace. I don't think the whites want
peace. They should leave," said Evans, calling the U.N. peacekeepers
"traitors."
     Evans' loyalists, many barefoot and brandishing automatic assault
rifles, danced and fired volleys into the air when he returned to his
warren of shanties.
     "If they want peace we want peace too," said one of Evans' followers,
referring to the peacekeepers as he stood guard over Odair. "If they want
war, we are ready for war."

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