www.cbc.ca/story/world/national/2004/11/29/haiti-children-police-041129.html

29 Nov 2004

PORT-AU-PRINCE – Someone has been killing street children on the streets of Haiti’s capital, and the kids blame the police.

United Nations officials in Port-au-Prince say at least six children have been shot to death in the past few weeks.

Several of the ragged, dirty children on the streets of the Haitian capital told CBC reporter Stephen Puddicombe that police come at night to kill them.

Ten-year-old Jean-Baptiste said the police accuse the street kids of burning tires and stealing, or supporting ousted president Jean-Bertrand Aristide.

The police say these stories are fabrications of the imaginations of children looking for attention.

The UN report doesn’t lay blame for the killings.

But more people than just the street kids are living in fear of the police or the other armed groups roaming Haiti’s neighbourhoods.

In three of Haiti’s four largest cities, the police have essentially ceded control to gangs of armed thugs of various political bents.

Some areas of the capital are left mostly in anarchy, because both the police and UN peacekeepers are loath to make more than brief forays into them.

That insecurity means humanitarian aid can’t reach many people.

Even where police are active, there are accounts of people in police uniforms killing or kidnapping people suspected of being supporters of Aristide’s Lavalas party.

Prime Minister Gerard Latortue’s interim government was installed following Aristide ‘s Feb. 29 ouster. It has struggled to gain au thority since then.

An international stabilization force, including troops from Canada, went to Haiti, and was replaced in June by UN peacekeepers.

Both the government and Aristide ‘s party accuse the other of backing armed gangs.