Popular Haitian actor killed in Port-au-Prince
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| Published on Friday, May 25, 2007 |
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PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AFP): A popular Haitian actor was kidnapped and shot dead by his captors this week, his radio station said Thursday, triggering fears of a resurgence of violence that has been contained by UN forces.
Francois Latour, 65, was seized by a group of young men as he headed home in Port-au-Prince late Tuesday, said Patrick Moussignanc, the director of Radio Caraibe, where the humorist hosted the popular show "We buy, we sell."
"The kidnappers, who used the victim's cellphone, demanded a 100,000-dollar ransom to release him, saying he had been shot in the abdomen," Moussignanc said.
Latour's death sent shockwaves through Haiti's artists community, while the government held a minute of silence for the highly-regarded theater and film actor.
"He had the gift of gab and a sense of humor," President Rene Preval's office said in a statement, offering its outrage and sadness at the loss of an "invaluable citizen."
His death, along with the killing in recent days of two policemen in Port-au-Prince and a journalist in the northwest town of Gonaives, have revived concerns that violent crime might return to plague the impoverished country again.
The kidnapping and crime rate has dropped since UN forces were deployed to the capital's most dangerous neighborhoods in late 2006.
Haitian lawmakers, shocked by Latour's death, urged police officials to take quick measures to curb violence.
But a police spokesman insisted that the prominent killings were not an indication of a resurgence of unchecked crimes.
"The dramatic killings of two policemen and of Francois Latour should not lead us to believe that insecurity is back in Haiti," said police spokesman Frantz Lerebours.
A UN stabilization force was deployed to Haiti after former president Jean Bertrand Aristide fled the country in February 2004 amid a popular uprising. The force currently numbers about 7,000 troops and 1,800 police.
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