=?x-unknown?q?29784=3A__=28news=29__Chamberlain=3A__Six-hour?==?x-unknown?q?_gun_battle_in__Cit=E9_Soleil_=28fwd=29?=

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

   By TRENT JACOBS

   PORT-AU-PRINCE, Feb 9 (AP) -- Hundreds of U.N. peacekeepers raided
Haiti's largest and most violent slum Friday, seizing a portion of it in a
six-hour gunbattle that left a gang member dead and two soldiers wounded,
officials said.
   More than 700 heavily armed blue-helmeted troops from seven countries
participated in the pre-dawn raid on Port-au-Prince's sprawling Cite Soleil
slum, entering the mazelike shantytown in armored vehicles and on foot as
U.N. helicopters circled above.
   The peacekeepers seized several abandoned buildings in a section known
as "Boston" that had been used by gangs to stage attacks. The raid sparked
an intense firefight within the densely populated slum of 300,000 people.
   Two U.N. soldiers -- from Brazil and Bolivia -- were slightly wounded,
one by gunfire and the other in an unspecified incident unrelated to the
fighting, U.N. spokesman Jean-Jacques Simon said.
   The spokesman said U.N. troops killed one suspected gang member and
wounded four others.
   "There will be no tolerance for the kidnappings, harassment and terror
carried out by criminal gangs," said Maj. Gen. Carlos Alberto Dos Santos
Cruz, the Brazilian commander of the 9,000-strong international force. "I
will continue to cleanse these areas of the gangs who are robbing the
people of their security."
   Friday's raid was one of the biggest in months by peacekeepers, who were
sent to the troubled Caribbean country more than two years ago to quell
violence in the chaos of a 2004 revolt that toppled former President
Jean-Bertrand Aristide.
   Dos Santos, speaking earlier from Cite Soleil as gunfire still echoed
through the streets, said gang members fired thousands of rounds at
peacekeepers. Peacekeepers returned fire -- and at one point could be seen
using a sniper to fire into the slum from a water tower.
   Associated Press journalists saw the blood-spattered body of a young man
in a street. Witnesses said he was walking through the area when he was hit
by gunfire, but it was not clear who shot him and his identity was unknown.
Residents moved the body inside a building.
   Later, AP journalists saw slum residents use a wheelbarrow to carry out
a motionless woman bleeding from her chest. The residents said she was
struck by a stray bullet at her home. Her condition was not immediately
known.
   Afterward, about 100 Cite Soleil residents staged an impromptu protest
outside the U.N. military base in the slum, waving a white sheet and
chanting "We want peace!"
   "We want this fighting to stop so innocent people of Cite Soleil can
stop being victims and live as human beings," protester Damas Augustin said
as peacekeepers put up barriers to keep demonstrators at bay.
   On Dec. 22, U.N. troops raided another part of Cite Soleil to break up a
kidnapping gang. The U.N. said six suspected gang members were killed,
although slum dwellers said 10 people died and that all were civilians.
   Friday's raid targeted the Boston section of Cite Soleil, which is
controlled by a notorious street gang led by a shadowy figure known only as
"Evens."
   "We are now in control of the area known as Boston," U.N. spokesman
David Wimhurst said.
   He said the gang members apparently fled the area and that no arrests
had been made.
   Meanwhile, an American missionary kidnapped outside the Haitian capital
was released Friday, U.N. police and friends said, although there were
conflicting reports about whether Nathan Jean-Dieudonne was harmed during
the ordeal.
   Jean-Dieudonne, 58, a U.S. citizen of Haitian descent, was abducted
Sunday while driving home from his church in suburban Croix-des-Bouquets.
It was not immediately clear if a ransom was paid.
   ------
   Associated Press Writer Stevenson Jacobs contributed to this story.