| Boy howdy, wonder how the crack Rantburg editorial staff missed that prediction. |
PORT-AU-PRINCE- Fresh unrest erupted in Haiti Tuesday, a year after 6,000 UN troops and 1,400 police arrived here and as the UN Security Council and as the UN failed to extend their stay through elections in a matter of months.
In the latest violence, the French embassy here said Paris' honorary counsel for the northern city of Cap Haitien had been badly wounded by gunshots fired at his car en route to the capital. And at least two people were killed by gunfire earlier Tuesday in the Haitian capital where a market was also burned down, witnesses said.
| At some point there just isn't anything left in Haiti to burn. |
An AFP photographer saw the bodies of two people killed by gunshots, as well as a wounded man rushed to a nearby hospital in a vehicle. According to market vendors several people were killed and wounded. There was also much property damage.
The violence, blamed on backers of ousted president Jean-Bertrand Aristide, occurred near Cite Soleil, one of Port-au-Prince's largest shantytowns and home to 300,000 persons.
Eric Bosc, a spokesman for the French embassy, said honorary counsel Paul-Henri Mourral was badly wounded by gunshots. "Mr. Mourral took several bullets around his abdomen while travelling in his car near the airport, en route from Cap Haitien to the capital," Bosc told AFP. The French representative, who owns a hotel in Cap Haitien, was rushed to the Saint-Joseph hospital here, where his condition is said to be serious, according to Bosc.
As the unrest flared, Port-au-Prince Mayor Carline Simon called for calm and denounced the acts, which she said "will not resolve the country's problems."
| Not that the thug-boys really care, Carline. |
Simon sought help from the Red Cross and police to rescue people threatened by the incidents. According to Haitian radio Tropic FM, blue-helmeted UN stabilization force soldiers and Haitian police took up positions after midday around the presidential palace. Sporadic gunfire could be heard in that area.
More than 620 people have been killed by gunfire in the past seven months, most in the capital, human rights groups say. Some Port-Au-Prince neighborhoods remain under the thumb of armed Aristide supporters, who continue to press for his return to power.
In New York meanwhile, the UN Security Council on Tuesday renewed its stabilization mission to Haiti for only 24 days, after failing to agree a longer deployment. The United States wants congressional approval before agreeing to field more troops, and China wants only a six-month extension because Haiti recognizes its rival, Taiwan. However, diplomats said it is unlikely that China, which holds a veto on the council, would scuttle the mission on the eve of Haiti's elections.
| The question, and remember, death is not an option: what's more worthless, Haiti's diplomatic recognition of another country or Haiti's presidential election? |
Last month Aristide said he would not run in the presidential election scheduled for later this year in his Caribbean homeland, the Americas' poorest country. Aristide, who has been living in exile in South Africa for almost a year, said he was barred by the constitution from seeking a third term.| The office of dicator, however, interests him keenly. |
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