30098: (news) Chamberlain: Fleeing gangs set up new bases in rural Haiti (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

     By Joseph Guyler Delva

     PORT-AU-PRINCE, Feb 28 (Reuters) - Heavily armed gangs, fleeing
Haiti's dangerous slums in the face of U.N. peacekeeper raids, have
established new bases in provincial areas, creating panic in rural
populations, officials and residents say.
     A gang leader known as Belony, who was recently chased from the
capital's Cite Soleil slum by U.N. peacekeepers, now leads about 100 gunmen
near the northern town of Saint-Michel, according to Patrick Joseph, a
lawmaker representing the area.
     "The government and security forces should act now to avoid a
deterioration of the security situation there," Joseph said, adding that
the gang members were making no effort to hide.
     "They take refuge near a mountain, walking in the dozens with assault
weapons in their hands and the population of Saint-Michel is frightened to
death."
     U.N. peacekeepers were sent to Haiti shortly after then-President
Jean-Bertrand Aristide was ousted in an armed rebellion three years ago and
have stepped up operations against slum gangs in recent weeks.
     The gangs, some of which remain loyal to Aristide, have run many of
Port-au-Prince's poorest neighborhoods for years.
     Hundreds of soldiers raided Cite Soleil in early February, spurring a
battle in which thousands of rounds were fired, at least one person was
killed and several were wounded.
     The U.N. Security Council voted two weeks ago to extend the
peacekeeping mission for eight months and asked troops to step up
operations against gangs. The U.N. force has 6,800 troops and nearly 2,000
police.
     Residents of Saint-Michel told Radio Metropole that they feared
attacks by the armed gangs.
     "We wonder what the Haitian police and U.N. troops are doing. We call
on them to come and help us," one unidentified resident told the radio
station.
     "They (gang members) are walking with their heavy weapons, they seize
cattle, they have been panicking the population."
      Edmond Mulet, the U.N. envoy to Haiti, said U.N. helicopter crews
were conducting searches over areas where bandits were reported to be
hiding.
     "It will be easier for security forces to track them because they
can't go unnoticed in rural areas," Mulet said. "We will continue to track
them wherever they go."
     Reports from other provincial cities, including Les Cayes in the
south, also indicate armed gangs hunted by U.N. soldiers in the capital
have tried to set up in rural areas where the police or U.N. presence is
absent or very weak.
     "They probably stay with relatives or other people they have
connection with," said Jean Robenson Belledent, police commissioner in the
northwest town of Port-de-Paix, where some bandits are believed to have
fled from Port-au-Prince.
     Gang members have also attempted to flee across the border to the
neighboring Dominican Republic.
     U.N. officials said they arrested about three dozen gang members in
the raid three weeks ago and have confiscated a few weapons and some
ammunition in Cite Soleil.
     Critics blamed U.N. troops for failing to capture Belony and other
notorious gang leaders.
     "When you chase them away and leave them with their weapons and the
potential to take the violence elsewhere, you don't solve anything," former
army Col. Himler Rebu said.
     But U.N. military officials said the primary goal of the sweeps was
not to capture gang leaders but to take control of areas held by gangs and
give residents a sense of security.