Reprinted from Caribbean Net News
caribbeannetnews.com

UN troops storm Haiti slum, in gunfight with gang

Saturday, February 10, 2007

by: Joseph Guyler Delva

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (Reuters): Hundreds of UN soldiers stormed a slum neighborhood in Haiti's capital on Friday to try to wrest control from a criminal gang, prompting a gunfight that killed one person and wounded several others, including two peacekeepers.

More than 700 UN troops from seven nations moved into the Cite Soleil slum in Port-au-Prince around 3 am to arrest a feared gang leader known as Evans and take over territory occupied by his armed gang.

"The gangsters shot thousands of rounds at our troops when we entered the slum this morning," the Brazilian UN troops' commander, Col. Barrosso Magno, said from the scene.

"We know that one person was killed and several others wounded."

A UN spokesman, Jean Jacques Simon, said two peacekeepers were slightly injured during the operation, one from Jordan and another from Bolivia. But a UN military official said the Bolivian soldier was hurt in a road accident.

The dead person was not identified.

Magno said the peacekeepers have taken over key positions held by the gangs.

UN peacekeepers deployed in Haiti since June 2004 and local police have been stepping up efforts to quell criminal gangs blamed for much of Haiti's violence and kidnappings.

The raid came two hours after a kidnapped missionary was freed unharmed following payment of a ransom.

Nathan Jean Dieudonne, a US missionary of Haitian origin, was abducted at gunpoint on Sunday on his way back from church in the Croix-des-Bouquets suburb of Port-au-Prince. He was released about 1 a.m. on Friday, said Fred Blaise, a spokesman for the UN police in Haiti.

"He is safe and sound and he was not physically mistreated," Blaise said.

He said Dieudonne's family paid a ransom but would not disclose the amount. Dieudonne's associates had said the kidnappers initially demanded $500,000.

Haitian police and US FBI agents participated in negotiations to secure Dieudonne's release, according to the head of Haiti's anti-kidnapping police, Commissioner Henry Dossous.

Dieudonne, 58, runs a Protestant church known as Bethel d'Haiti. Police said he was driving with three other people when gunmen halted the car and abducted him, then let the other passengers go.

Dieudonne had lived in the US state of Virginia, where his wife is from, but the couple had mostly lived in Haiti since the 1980s, his associates said.

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