Haiti: Beheaded corpses found

2004-10-08 09:29

Port-Au-Prince - A man's beheaded body lay in the street in a seaside slum on Thursday near the smouldering remains of another beheaded corpse that was wrapped in tires and set ablaze, as leaders of the uprising that ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide said they want to bring security to Haiti.

That statement is likely to inflame already enraged Aristide supporters who began a campaign called "Operation Baghdad" in which they decapitated the bodies of at least three police officers last week and are threatening to also behead foreigners.

They are demanding Aristide's return from exile in South Africa and an end to "the invasion" - referring to United States marines who flew in the day Aristide left on February 29 and United States peacekeepers who replaced them in June.

20 killed

At least 20 people have been killed and 50 wounded in a week of violence that frequently spun out of control.

But police chief Leon Charles said Thursday it was "calming down." He acknowledged bursts of gunfire continue in some places but said "we are in control of the situation."

People hurried past the corpses in La Saline on Thursday holding their noses or covering their eyes. Only a foot remained intact on the badly charred body, which had been lying there since on Wednesday. The other was covered in cuts as if hacked with a machete. Both heads were missing.

"We're waiting for the government to call on the Front to solve the country's security problems," chief rebel leader Guy Philippe, who now heads the Front for National Reconstruction Party, told a news conference.

Rebels killed scores of people including police officers and released hundreds of prison inmates in the February uprising.

Philippe said UN peacekeepers and Haitian police had done nothing to disarm Aristide partisans. Aristide supporters say the United Nations and US-backed interim government that is friendly with Philippe should disarm the rebels.

He criticised UN peacekeeping efforts saying "The UN never resolved the problem of insecurity in any country in the world."

Tens of thousands of people in the city of 250 000 remain hungry, three weeks after the passage of Tropical Storm Jeanne, the International Federation of Red Crescent and Red Cross Societies warned this week.

US help

Meanwhile, Interim Prime Minister Gerard Latortue asked US Secretary of State Colin Powell to help grant temporary protection to Haitians living in the United States, saying the Caribbean country cannot cope with a return of migrants.

Relief workers say the violence in Port-au-Prince also crippled food shipments to Gonaives.

About 300 000 people were left homeless by Jeanne's floods and mudslides, which killed at least 1 870 and left 884 reported missing, most presumed dead and most in Gonaives.

On Wednesday UN troops in armoured vehicles rolled through Bel Air slum and provided security while police arrested 75 people, but found no weapons.

- AP