U.N. ambassador denounces police brutality in Haiti
/Two days after Haitian police opened
fire on a crowd of peaceful protesters and killed two, the head of the
U.N. mission here said police brutality is undercutting progress and
such action will no longer be tolerated. "We cannot tolerate
executions," U.N. Ambassador Juan Gabriel Valdes said in an interview
with The Miami Herald on Wednesday. "We can't tolerate shooting out of
control. We will not permit human rights abuses." He said U.N.
peacekeepers will intervene - and use force if necessary - if Haitian
police attack unarmed civilians again. The peacekeepers began arriving
in Haiti in June to support the small and outgunned police force in
restoring law and order after the ouster of President Jean-Bertrand
Aristide. But shootouts between Haitian police and residents of poor
neighborhoods still loyal to Aristide are becoming a daily occurrence.
And allegations are mounting that officers are killing unarmed people
without provocation. Valdes concedes that the international troops have
witnessed suspicious police shootings before Monday's attack. "There
was an incident last week in which four people were killed," he said.
The stakes could not be higher. Such attacks are fueling unrest in the
vast slums around the capital city of Port-au-Prince and threaten to
derail the legitimacy - or even feasibility - of elections now set for
October to replace the interim government. [more]
- Haitian police open fire on nonviolent march for democracy Feb. 28 [more]
