HAITI: Shootout with United Nations in Haitian slum leaves up to fifteen dead

Record ID: 375740

  • Title: HAITI: Shootout with United Nations in Haitian slum leaves up to fifteen dead
  • Date: 27th November 2005
  • Summary: (BN03) PORT-AU-PRINCE, HAITI (NOVEMBER 26, 2005) (REUTERS) U .N. PEACEKEEPERS ARMOURED PERSONNEL CARRIER ROLLING INTO CITE SOLEIL NEIGHBOURHOOD SHOOTING ALONG THE ROAD IN CITE SOLEIL U.N. PEACEKEEPERS ARMORED PERSONNEL CARRIER UNDER FIRE CITE SOLEIL RESIDENTS COWERING DURING THE HEAVY SHOOTING HAITIAN WOMAN COLLECTING HER BELONGINGS FROM THE STREET U.N. PEACEKEEPERS' ARMO
  • Embargoed: 12th December 2005 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Haiti
  • Country: Haiti
  • Topics: Domestic Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA3TFPP4JX1WCGARMHPY90OKNZK
  • Story Text: Intense fighting broke out on Saturday (November 26) between U.N. peacekeepers and the residents of a Haitian slum, killing up to fifteen people.
    Residents of the poverty-stricken neighbourhood of Cite Soleil claimed that several more people were wounded. U.N. forces patrolling the area traded fire with armed gunmen in a shootout that residents said lasted nearly five hours.
    Frightened residents huddled behind walls and ran for cover as bullets flew through the neighbourhood.
    "The whites came and shot at the house. I don't know why they did that. I was sitting in my kitchen preparing food for my children when they shot right there. Here's the proof. Here's where the bullets hit and then I lay under the bed with the children and I cried 'Jesus, Jesus! Why?' Because we didn't know why this is happening to us," said one woman.
    Armed gunmen patrolled the side streets carrying handguns, AK-47 machine guns and M16s. The outburst of violence comes just a day after Haiti, struggling to organize elections amid political violence and general disorder, on Friday (November 25) delayed the vote until early next year and gave up trying to inaugurate a new government by a constitutional deadline of February The unstable Caribbean country's electoral council said it had decided to hold the first round of presidential and legislative elections on January 8, and a run-off on February 15, ignoring an earlier call by the interim government for the first round of the ballot to take place on December 27.
    Originally scheduled for mid-November, the elections taking place under U.N. supervision have been delayed repeatedly because of street violence, poor management by electoral authorities and logistical problems.
    The elections will be the first in the poorest country of the Americas since former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide fled into exile in February 2004 after a month-long armed revolt and under U.S. and French pressure to quit.
    More than 7,000 Brazilian-led U.N. peacekeepers and international police have been deployed to Haiti but their presence has failed to stop clashes between gangs supporting or opposing Aristide, or a wave of kidnappings and criminal violence that has afflicted the capital.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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