STEVENSON JACOBS (Associated Press)
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti - U.N. forces and Haitian police surrounded a teeming seaside slum Thursday in an offensive aimed at disarming gangs and restoring order ahead of fall elections. At least one person was killed and six wounded by violence in the area, officials said.
U.N. troops will guard the perimeter of the Cite Soleil slum outside Port-au-Prince slum overnight and start moving in gradually on Friday, said military spokesman Lt. Col. Elouafi Boulbars.
"We will move inside progressively," Boulbars said. "Today was the first stage, tomorrow we'll begin a new stage."
The operation, the first major offensive by U.N. forces around the capital, comes amid a surge of violence that has killed hundreds since September, including two U.N. peacekeepers. More than 1,000 Jordanian troops as well as Chinese and Haitian police were taking part in the raid.
The 7,400-member U.N. force in Haiti has come under criticism for inaction in stemming the violence more than a year after an uprising ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. In recent weeks, mission leaders have vowed to get tough with armed groups.
On Thursday, about 30 gunmen tried to hijack vehicles on a road into Cite Soleil, a crowded shantytown that borders Port-au-Prince, shooting and killing at least one truck driver just 100 yards from Jordanian peacekeepers. The troops drove toward the hijackers after the shooting, forcing them to flee.
The Haitian Red Cross said at least six people were injured by gunfire.
Looters then descended on the abandoned truck, hauling away cartons of soda on their heads. Onlookers then mobbed the looters, trying to pull soda bottles out of the boxes for themselves. U.N. peacekeepers did not intervene.
Later, a young man toting an M-16 fired down the street to give cover while others drove off with the truck and disappeared down an alley. The man's rifle bore a sticker with Aristide's face.
Repeated bursts of gunfire rang out from Cite Soleil and Red Cross workers carried one man out on a stretcher with bullet wounds to his feet.
"I was just sitting with some friends when all of a sudden there were a lot of shots and I got hit," said Wilner Darer, 18, lying beside an armored vehicle. "There's a lot of shooting in the community. Everybody is afraid and nobody is leaving their house."
Armed men also fired at a car carrying an American freelance photographer and her driver. A bullet entered the vehicle but no one was injured.
Late Wednesday, clashes between rival gangs left several people dead, including a powerful anti-Aristide gang leader known as "Labaniere," said Boulbars, the U.N. military spokesman.
Separately, unknown assailants shot at a Filipino soldier guarding the United Nations' new headquarters in Port-au-Prince early Thursday, Boulbars said. The soldier escaped injury after shots hit him in his helmet and protective vest.
Boulbars said troops plan to sweep the Cite Soleil area for illegal guns and operations in other communities will begin shortly.
The operation comes as Haiti's caretaker government and the U.N. force struggle to contain flashpoints of violence. More than 400 people have been killed in September in clashes involving police, peacekeepers, pro- and anti-Aristide gangs, and former soldiers who led the February 2004 revolt. At least 40 police officers have been killed.
Earlier this month, U.N. troops fought bands of armed ex-soldiers in two rural towns that left two peacekeepers dead. Two former soldiers also died. The U.N. force arrived in June 2004.
Experts say disarming the gangs in the winding streets of Cite Soleil will be far more difficult for U.N. peacekeepers than dealing with the former soldiers - bands of aging, loosely organized men armed with rusty rifles.
Many of the street gangs received money and perhaps weapons under Aristide and find it easy to disappear into the surrounding alleys and shanties in the crowded slum.
The pro-Aristide gangs have their roots in the 1991 coup, when paramilitary death squads sprayed Aristide's slum strongholds with gunfire. Some of today's Aristide loyalists were orphaned by the killings, which eased in 1994 when U.S. troops restored Aristide.
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04-01-05, 12:15 AM
U.N. troops confront gangs in Haiti
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