Sri Lankan UN soldier killed in Haiti

[struggle4progress]

A soldier from Sri Lanka serving with UN peacekeeping forces in Haiti was killed Sunday, during an operation to regain control of a police station that had been occupied by former Haitian soldiers in southern Haiti, officials said.

The deceased Sri Lankan soldier was supporting UN stabilization force (MINUSTAH) troops who took back control of the police station in Petit-Goave, 70 kilometers (43 miles) south of Port-au-Prince, on Sunday. The ex-soldiers had used the police station as their headquarters since taking control of the city on August 30. <snip>

http://www.tdg.ch/tghome/tgnews.detailcateg.YWZwLmNvbToyMDA1MDMyMDowNTAzMjAyMDAxMDkubjhpOG44YzA6MQ==.1.0.html


Gunbattle in Haiti leaves three dead
STEVENSON JACOBS
Associated Press

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti - U.N. troops fought the bloodiest clash of their 10-month-old mission in Haiti on Sunday after a raid to remove armed ex-soldiers from a police station erupted into a gunbattle that killed three people, including one peacekeeper, officials said. <snip>

"We lost one man," Kongo-Doudou said, adding that three other peacekeepers were injured and in stable condition. Two former members of Haiti's disbanded army died and 10 others were wounded.

The U.N. troops entered Petit-Goave in a pre-dawn operation to remove ex-soldiers from the police station when shots rang out, U.N. civilian police spokesman Jean-Francios Vezina said. <snip>

U.N. forces detained 35 ex-soldiers following Sunday's gunbattle, Kongo-Doudou said. <snip>

http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/news/world/11187376.htm

[Judi Lynn]

1. Haiti Clash Kills 3, Including Peacekeeper

Haiti Clash Kills 3, Including Peacekeeper

Sunday March 20, 2005 11:31 PM


By STEVENSON JACOBS

Associated Press Writer

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) - U.N. troops fought the bloodiest clash of their 10-month-old mission in Haiti on Sunday, when a raid to remove ex-soldiers from a police station erupted into a gunbattle that killed three people, including a peacekeeper, officials said. Three peacekeepers were also wounded.

The Sri Lankan peacekeeper who died in the raid in Petit-Goave, an stronghold for former soldiers about 45 miles west of Port-au-Prince, is the first killed in a clash since the United Nations force arrived, said Toussaint Kongo-Doudou, a U.N. spokesman. Two ex-soldiers died and 10 others were wounded.

The U.N. troops entered Petit-Goave before dawn. Using a loudspeaker, the Brazilian commander of U.N. troops in Haiti, Lt. Gen. Augusto Heleno Ribeiro, tried for 20 minutes to get the former soldiers to surrender peacefully when they opened fire on U.N. troops, Kongo-Doudou said.

``We wanted to resolve this peacefully, but our troops received a hostile response from the insurgents and so they responded with force,'' he said.
(snip/...)

http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-4880044,00.html