29012: (news) Chamberlain: Haiti-Legislator Kidnapped (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

   By STEVENSON JACOBS

   PORT-AU-PRINCE, Aug 26 (AP) -- Gunmen kidnapped and briefly held a
Haitian legislator before releasing him unharmed, local radio reported
Saturday.
   Rodney Alcide, a deputy in the lower house of Parliament, was seized
late Friday in a suburb north of the capital of Port-au-Prince along with
his driver and bodyguard, Kiskeya radio said.
   Alcide was reportedly freed unharmed two hours later, but the driver and
bodyguard were still held Saturday.
   It was unclear whether a ransom was paid to free Alcide, the first
lawmaker to be kidnapped in a recent spate of abductions sweeping
Port-au-Prince.
   Kidnappings surged to their highest level in months in July, with at
least 60 abductions reported. Authorities say many more go unreported, as
families prefer to negotiate with kidnappers rather than notify police.
   Authorities blame the kidnappings mostly on well-armed street gangs
based in the capital's violent slums. The crimes have raised fears of a
return to the lawlessness seen in the aftermath of a bloody revolt that
toppled former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide in February 2004.
   Earlier this month, President Rene Preval ordered gangs to disarm and
rejoin society or face death.
   The gangs have said they won't lay down their weapons until U.N.
peacekeepers patrolling the Caribbean nation halt offensives in the slums.
   The United Nations, which has 8,800 troops and police in Haiti, has said
it won't change its operations.