24789: Craig (news) U.N. Security Council Concludes Haiti Trip

[sak-pase@bimini.ws]

U.N. Security Council Concludes Haiti Trip
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: April 16, 2005
Filed at 2:47 a.m. ET

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) -- Saturday was the final day of a 
fact-finding trip to Haiti by the U.N. Security Council, a four-day 
mission marked by bloody fighting between peacekeepers, police and armed 
gangs, underscoring the challenge of bringing peace to the hemisphere's 
poorest country.

U.N. peacekeepers and Haitian police waged an hour-long gunbattle Friday 
in a maze-like seaside slum. The fighting killed at least five -- and 
perhaps as many as 10 -- suspects described as members of an armed band 
loyal to deposed President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, U.N. officials said.

Among the dead, U.N. officials said, was a suspect in the fatal shooting 
Thursday of a Filipino peacekeeper, the third U.N. casualty in the 
year-old mission to stabilize Haiti.

Security Council members said it was likely they would increase the 
number of U.N. civilian police in Haiti when they vote next month to 
expand the mission's mandate past its June expiration.

Meanwhile, outside observers said aggressive moves by U.N. forces in 
recent months had not yet stanched the violence.

Dozens of people die monthly from attacks largely by criminal gangs in 
Port-au-Prince, said Anna Neistat, co-author of a new Human Rights Watch 
report critical of the U.N. and Haiti's interim government.

''In recent months and weeks, violence in the capital has become the No. 
1 problem,'' she said. ''It takes lives every single day.''

U.N. officials have claimed recent victories against armed gangs and 
promised more action against gun-toting militants in coming days.

The clashes come as some diplomats and politicians said Haiti has made 
little progress in preparing for fall elections and needs more funding 
to lay the groundwork for the vote.

The U.N. Security Council met with leaders of various political groups 
Friday, and participants said Haitian politicians expressed frustration 
with U.N. efforts to assure safe and free elections more than a year 
after Aristide was overthrown.

More than 400 people have died since September in clashes among pro- and 
anti-Aristide street gangs, police, peacekeepers and ex-soldiers who 
helped oust Aristide.

Security Council members also toured the northern cities of Gonaives and 
Cap-Haitien on Friday. U.N. soldiers said the security situation had 
improved in Gonaives, where peacekeepers were consumed with relief work 
after September floods that killed nearly 2,000 people.

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-Haiti-UN.html