23600: (Chamberlain) Police and UN troops move into Bel Air (later story) (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

   By MICHELLE FAUL

   PORT-AU-PRINCE, Oct 24 (AP) -- Haitian police and U.N. troops moved into
a slum that has become a flashpoint for unrest, using bulldozers to remove
a barricade of torched cars that had blocked traffic in the capital.
   One Haitian policeman was shot and killed, apparently in early
resistance that ended when scores of Brazilian troops moved in behind 10
armored cars with mounted submachine guns.
   A police officer at the scene said at least two "bandits" also were
killed and several civilians were wounded. That information could not be
confirmed by late Sunday.
   The chant of hymns wafted from church services and a U.N. helicopter
roared overhead as the operation got under way in Bel Air, a poor
neighborhood full of supporters of ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.
   The crackdown came two days after the government said it would root out
gangs that have blockaded areas of certain neighborhoods. Bel Air residents
accuse police of attacking them without cause and making illegal arrests.
   Haiti's capital has been convulsed by violence since police shot and
killed two protesters at a Sept. 30 march to demand the return of Aristide,
who went into exile amid an armed revolt in February. At least 56 people
have been killed, including the officer shot Sunday.
   The operation began at 5 a.m. and continued into the afternoon, the
first during the unrest to last several hours. Previous incursions into the
neighborhood were brief because police encountered gunfire.
   A bulldozer pushed burnt-out cars down Rue Macajoux to the Church of Our
Lady of Perpetual Help, where front loaders lifted them into garbage
trucks. Graffiti scrawled across a church wall called for the return of
Aristide.
   Peacekeepers used a sledgehammer to knock down the second-story wall of
a corner building used by snipers, said Gen. Americo Salvador, commander of
the Brazilian brigade that is leading the U.N. mission to stabilize Haiti.
   Police Commissioner Jean-Brice Ralph said his men detained two unarmed
men "because they are known bandits."
   At the top of Rue Macajoux, a group of young men jeered at police
officers.
   "All we want is to have President Aristide returned," said Aristide
Carlo, a 20-year-old student. "The police accuse us of terrorism, but it is
they who are the bandits."
   Human rights lawyer Renan Hedouville said Sunday that his organization
has received reports of women and young girls being raped in many of the
troubled areas in Port-au-Prince, especially Bel Air. Many of the reports
involve former Haitian soldiers who helped oust Aristide, he said.
   Besides the Brazilian troops, about 100 police officers from Benin,
Canada, France and Spain took part in the operation.
   Daniel Moskaluk, a spokesman for an international police force training
Haitian officers, said Jordanian and Haitian riot police would remain in
the neighborhood. He said his group would help set up a permanent Haitian
police station.
   On Friday, interim President Boniface Alexandre called the gangs
"terrorists" and urged people in several troubled neighborhoods to
cooperate with authorities to "expel these bandits."
   Aristide fled Feb. 29, accused of corruption and using police to
suppress his opponents. He left Haiti on a U.S.-chartered plane as
ex-soldiers leading a bloody rebellion neared Port-au-Prince.
   Now in South Africa, Aristide has accused the United States of
orchestrating his ouster and insists he remains Haiti's democratically
elected leader. The United States denies his charges.
   Interim Prime Minister Gerard Latortue on Saturday castigated the United
Nations, saying it had not sent enough troops to prevent the violence.
There are 3,200 peacekeepers in Haiti, instead of the promised 8,700 to
police a country of 8 million.