Murderous violence erupts in flood-stricken Haiti

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.

A day after three police were shot and killed amid the protests, two of their headless bodies were found in uniform yesterday in the Port-au-Prince slum of La Saline, national police chief Leon Charles said. He said demonstrators were believed to have pulled the two bodies away before decapitating them.

He said a fourth police officer’s headless body was found near Cite Soleil, a slum teeming with gangs of Aristide loyalists.

The Haitian broadcaster Radio Metropole reported at least one civilian shot and killed in a pro-Aristide demonstration yesterday, while officials said police had killed two gang leaders on Thursday.

Supporters of Aristide, now in exile in South Africa seven months after his overthrow, called for a third day of demonstrations today to commemorate the 1991 army coup that toppled his first government.

Yesterday, protesters in western Martissant suburb fired shots in the air, blocked the western highway with piles of burning tires and smashed car windows, witnesses said. Radio Metropole said at least one person was killed there and two were injured.

Several main roads in downtown Port-au-Prince were blocked by flaming barricades and piles of rocks. The usually bustling marketplace was empty.

Police also killed two gang leaders in Cite Soleil on Thursday, Justice Minister Bernard Gousse said on Radio Vision 2000. He identified the gangsters as Tupac and Maxo, and said a third, Amaral, was injured.

Aristide’s Lavalas Family party on Thursday began three days of commemoration of the 1991 coup that unseated him for the first time. They also demanded an end to “the occupation” and “the invasion” by foreign troops – referring to the US-led force that followed Aristide’s February ouster and the UN peacekeepers who have taken over since June.

Tensions have exploded in Haiti as the country struggles to recover from catastrophic floods caused by Tropical Storm Jeanne two weeks ago. The storm killed more than 1,550 and left some 900 missing, most presumed dead. Almost all the victims were in the north-western city of Gonaives.

Yesterday hundreds of survivors howled in anguish when a UN food distribution centre ran out of wheat and oil at lunchtime. As the crowd of about 700 prepared to charge, Haitian riot police beat them back with batons.