UN 'categorically' denies shooting death in Haiti
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| Published on Saturday, June 20, 2009 | Email To Friend Print Version
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PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AFP) -- The UN security forces in Haiti "categorically" denied that any of its soldiers were involved in the death of a person during protests in the capital.
The UN Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH) insisted also that the death, initially attributed to a gun shot wound, was due to a "head injury inflicted by a stone or a blunt object."
The unidentified man died Thursday during demonstrations supporting former president Jean Bertrand Aristide, which erupted at a funeral service for a well-known priest in Port-Au-Prince.
"It seems that one person was killed close to the cathedral. The first reports we have show that the soldiers fired in the air," said Sophie Boutaud de la Combe, spokeswoman for the UN forces in Haiti at the time.
"The blue helmets were apparently attacked by stone-throwing demonstrators from different parts of the town center," she added.
The UN mission issued a later statement saying "the MINUSTAH categorically denies the allegations that some of its members shot the (victim)."
If its soldiers, the mission added, had fired warning shots "into the air to disperse the crowd, this action seems to have had no connection with the death."
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| Brazilian General Floriano Peixoto speaks during an AFP interview in Port-au-Prince. AFP PHOTO |
The commander of MINUSTAH, Brazilian General Floriano Peixoto, said before the preliminary investigation that he did not think his soldiers fired any deadly bullet.
"The truth is I do not believe... that the soldiers fired on the people with live ammunition," he told AFP soon after the incident.
"All the soldiers involved said that they did not fire on the people," he said.
Peixoto added that his soldiers were highly trained and accustomed to handling protests, and that soldiers on security patrols carry weapons that fire non-lethal ammunition.
"I'm convinced that this did not happen," he insisted.
Haitian police are carrying out the official investigation into the incident, while the MINUSTAH carried out an internal investigation.
The unrest came a day after a UN vehicle was set on fire here by demonstrators demanding that the UN forces leave Haiti, accusing them of using tear gas to end protests.
Haitian students have been demonstrating for the past two weeks demanding that the minimum wage be revised. But the protests have regularly ended in violence.
Aristide followers oppose the UN mission, which has been in Haiti for five years. | | | | Reads : 735 | | | |
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