[Shadow_Group] Fw: Port-au-Prince, Haiti (

[shadowgroup-l at lists.resist.ca]

----- Original Message ----- 



Port-au-Prince, Haiti (AP)

Enraged supporters of ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide armed
themselves with machetes, guns, rocks and bottles and roamed a downtown
slum, threatening to behead foreigners after UN peackeepers and Haitian
police arrested dozens of people Wed.

As gunfire crackled and two helicopters roared overhead, peacekeeprs in
armored pesonnel carriers moved into Bel Air, trying to put down a
campaign by Aristide loyalists who have carried out gory beheadings in
imitation of Iraqi insurgents.

Wednesday morning, the headless body of a man lay in the street in La
Salines, a seaside slum.  Last week, three police officers were
decapitated when Aristide supporters stepped up protests demanding his
return from exile in South Africa, launching what they called "Operation
Baghdad."

One angry man in Bel Air thrust a gun into the face of an Associated
Press reporter Wed., yelled expletives against President Bush and UN
peacekeepers, then screamed: "We are going to kidnap some Americans and
cut off their heads."

At least 19 people have been killed in Port-au-Prince.  Relief workers
say the violence could paralyze attempts to feed tens of thousands of
people in the northwest port city of Gonaives, which was devasted by
Tropical Storm Jeanne last month.

At least 46 people have been treated for gunshot wounds since Friday,
Port-au-Prince General Hospital said.

Aristide loyalists had sealed off Bel Air, a warren of concrete homes
overlooking the National Palace in Port-au-Prince.  In Wednesday's
operation, UN troops and Haitian police surrounded the district,
searching cars and people at checkpoints near torched cars that residents
were using to keep them out.

 
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.resist.ca/pipermail/shadowgroup-l/attachments/20041009/13911718/attachment.html>