HAITI: At least nine people are killed in country's largest slum in capital Port-au-Prince during a raid by security forces targeting armed gangs

At least nine people were killed in Haiti's largest slum on Friday (December 22) during a raid by security forces targeting armed gangs blamed for a recent surge in kidnappings and other crimes in the capital Port-au-Prince. It was one of the worst outbreaks of violence in the chaotic Caribbean country in more than a year and came hours after the U.N. chief envoy to Haiti, Edmond Mulet, said the government had given the go-ahead for a crackdown on areas controlled by gangs. Earlier in the day, at least two were reportedly killed and seventeen wounded after an exchange of heavy gunfire in the Cite Soleil slum, in which gunmen captured and torched a U.N. armored peacekeeping vehicle. The incident occurred late on Thursday night (December 21) while the U.N. peacekeeping unit was making their regular patrol of the volatile slum of Cite Soleil. Amongst the injured were reportedly two children who were taken away by remaining U.N. forces. The rest were taken to a local hospital by Red Cross ambulance workers. A man who claimed to have been one of the gunmen who took over the U.N. vehicle claimed the U.N. soldiers were the first to open fire. "We're going about, doing our business, listening to music and trying to think what to do for Christmas. Then around 4:30 this afternoon the UN soldiers patrolling the area - this is still not a problem, because we knew that they are here to help us Haitians - suddenly they started shooting. So we, the residents of Cite Soleil, will defend ourselves regardless. They drove around with like ten armored vehicles, one of them turned into a dead end street and got stuck. We opened fire and they fled through the back entrance of the armored vehicle. So we took over the vehicle and destroyed it," said Cite Soleil resident Jude Celested. Later in the day, about 400 U.N. soldiers in armored vehicles, backed by Haitian police forces, stormed a district called Bwa Nef in the volatile slum of Cite Soleil in a move to dislodge heavily armed gang members led by a young man known as Belony. A Reuters photographer counted nine bodies from the clashes that ensued and eyewitnesses counted four others dead. As many as 30 people were wounded, humanitarian aid workers said. All of the casualties were believed to be civilians. "Since 5 o'clock this morning, there has been alot of shooting by MINUSTAH, alot of people killed by bullets," said Cite Soleil resident Alex Surin. "People cannot go out to get something to eat because of all the shooting. They are here to kill all of us in Cite Soleil. Lots of people here are still hungry." The spokesperson for the U.N. peacekeeping mission in Haiti, Sophie De la Combe, declined to provide a toll. The U.N. operation, conducted jointly with the Haitian police, was led by Brazilian peacekeepers.

ITN Source | December 23, 2006

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