Two U.N. Peacekeepers Killed in Haiti

Mon Mar 21, 3:46 AM ET World - AP Latin America


By STEVENSON JACOBS, Associated Press Writer

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti - U.N. troops and ex-soldiers from Haiti's disbanded army fought two gunbattles in the country's southwest and center, killing at least four people, including two peacekeepers, in the deadliest day for the 10-month-old U.N. mission, officials said.



The Sri Lankan and Nepalese soldiers who died Sunday were the first peacekeepers killed in fighting here since the U.N. troops arrived in June 2004, replacing a U.S.-led force, to try and stabilize the impoverished, volatile nation following the ouster of its leader.


The first clash erupted after U.N. troops raided a police station occupied by armed ex-soldiers in Petit-Goave, an ex-soldier stronghold about 45 miles west of Port-au-Prince, setting off a fierce gunbattle, U.N. spokesman Toussaint Kongo-Doudou said.


"We lost one man," Kongo-Doudou said, adding that three other peacekeepers were injured and in stable condition. Two ex-soldiers died and 10 others were wounded.


Using a loudspeaker, the Brazilian commander of U.N. troops in Haiti, Lt. Ge. Augusto Heleno Ribeiro, had tried for 20 minutes to get the former soldiers to surrender peacefully when they opened fire on U.N. troops, Kongo-Doudou said.


"We wanted to resolve this peacefully but our troops received a hostile response from the insurgents and so they responded with force," he said.


Gerard Nelson, a Petit-Goave resident, was sleeping about a block from the police station when he was awoken by gunfire and ran outside. "There were bullets bouncing off the walls. People on the street were running to get out the way. It sounded like a war," Nelson said.


Later Sunday, a group of Nepalese soldiers driving to the central town of Hinche exchanged gunfire with a different group of former soldiers, U.N. spokesman Damian Onses-Cardona said. The ex-soldiers killed one Nepalese and stole one of their vehicles. It wasn't clear if the ex-soldiers suffered any casualties.


The clashes were the first major confrontation between the 7,400-strong U.N. force and former members of Haiti's disbanded army, who helped oust former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide in a 1991 coup and again in an armed rebellion a year ago.


Haiti, the Western Hemisphere's poorest nation, has been in turmoil for years. A U.S.-led peacekeeping force was deployed after Aristide was forced into exile in February 2004, and this force was replaced by the U.N. peacekeepers in June. Despite their presence, armed rebels and former soldiers still control much of Haiti's countryside and the peacekeepers have been criticized for failing to curb violence.


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