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Gunbattle in Haiti Leaves Three Dead

By STEVENSON JACOBS, Associated Press Writer

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti - U.N. troops fought the bloodiest clash of their 10-month-old mission in Haiti on Sunday after a raid to remove armed ex-soldiers from a police station erupted into a gunbattle that killed three people, including one peacekeeper, officials said.

The Sri Lankan soldier who died in the raid in Petit-Goave, 45 miles west of Port-au-Prince, was the first peacekeeper killed in a clash since the force arrived in June 2004, 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 former members of Haiti's disbanded army died and 10 others were wounded.

The U.N. troops entered Petit-Goave in a pre-dawn operation to remove ex-soldiers from the police station when shots rang out, U.N. civilian police spokesman Jean-Francios Vezina said.

The clash was the first major confrontation between the 7,400-strong U.N. force and former soldiers, who helped oust former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide in a 1991 coup and again in an armed rebellion a year ago.

U.N. forces detained 35 ex-soldiers following Sunday's gunbattle, Kongo-Doudou said.

"We are now in control of the police station," Vezina said.

The soldiers, many well into their 50s with fading uniforms and aging rifles, continue to control much of Haiti's countryside and a handful of provincial towns, bucking calls by the interim government and the U.N. force to disarm.

Aristide disbanded the army in 1995 after U.S. restored him to power following the first coup. The coup regime was blamed for the murders, maimings and torture of thousands of Aristide supporters, and today's former soldiers include convicted murderers.

Aristide was toppled again on Feb. 29, 2004, after a three-week revolt started by a street gang, and he is now living in exile in South Africa.

Little has been done to disarm the ex-soldiers, though U.N. officials say they'll soon launch a major disarmament plan.

The government plans to pay $29 million to about 6,000 former soldiers. It is not known how many have took up arms last year, but estimates range from several hundred to 2,000.