Fourteen children kidnapped at gunpoint along with their bus driver on their way to school have been released unharmed, but an American missionary abducted in a separate incident remained in captivity, Haitian police said today.

The presence of United Nations peacekeepers for more than a year has failed to curb widespread abuses and political violence in Haiti, leaving a volatile climate for upcoming elections, Amnesty International has declared.

MACHETE-WIELDING supporters of ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide are turning their wrath on Haiti’s demoralized police force, beheading some of their victims in a campaign imitative of the insurgency in Iraq.

Violence erupted again yesterday in the Haitian capital of Port-Au-Prince as the decapitated bodies of three police were found, bringing the death toll to at least seven people in two days of protests by Haitians demanding the return of ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.