28567: Anonymous (news) Small Machetes Army goes on Rampage (Article) (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Jeb Sprague <jebsprague@mac.com>

http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2006/07/07/18286314.php




SMALL MACHETES ARMY, FOUNDED UNDER LATORTUE, CONTINUES KILLING OF
HAITIAN CITIZENS

  About 20 people died in clashes between rival gangs fighting a turf
war in one of the Haitian capital's violent slums, a senior police
official said on Friday.

Michael Lucius, director of the judicial police, said the
bloodletting occurred Thursday night and early Friday in the
Martissant neighbourhood of Port-au-Prince, where the victims died of
gunshot wounds or were hacked to death with machetes.

"We have sent a team to the scene of the incidents and about 20
deaths are reported," Lucius told Reuters, saying he was still
waiting for a detailed report.

"We are doing all we can to try to control this situation," he added.

It was not immediately clear if those killed in Martissant were gang
members or residents caught in the cross-fire from the latest
outbreak of violence in the impoverished Caribbean nation.

One of the armed groups engaged in the violence, known as

"Lame Ti Manchet", Haitian creole for Small Machetes Army, was formed
over the past 1-1/2 years under the interim administration that
replaced former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, who was ousted in a
2004 revolt.

The group is widely believed to have cooperated at times with
elements of the Haitian police in crackdowns on groups loyal to
Aristide in Martissant.