Thursday, June 22, 2006

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AFP): A Canadian missionary was kidnapped from an orphanage he heads in Port-au-Prince, and his captors are demanding a ransom, police and witnesses said Wednesday.

Ed Hugues, 62, was abducted late Monday from the northern Port-au-Prince orphanage, said judicial police director Michael Lucius.

"We launched an operation in the neighborhood Tuesday that led to the arrest of five people, but we have not been able to free the Canadian," Lucius told AFP, adding that a Haitian man kidnapped in the same location has since been freed.

A UN Stabilization Mission (MINUSTAH) official said UN police were working on the case with their Haitian counterparts.

At least 47 people were kidnapped in the capital between April and June, according to police figures.

Haiti has been plagued by violence and a resumption of kidnappings, although MINUSTAH recently announced a drop in abductions. Police blamed the unrest on armed gangs operating in the capital.

Haiti's parliament was sworn in last month, more than two years after former president Jean Bertrand Aristide fled a popular uprising. MINUSTAH was deployed later to stabilize the Caribbean nation.

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