28765: (news) Chamberlain: Slumdwellers flee gang battles (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

   By MYRNA DOMIT

   PORT-AU-PRINCE, July 28 (AP) -- Hundreds of people fled their homes in a
hillside slum of the Haitian capital Friday to escape fierce fighting
between gangs that has killed at least 30 people in the past two months,
officials said.
   Families streamed away from the Grand Ravine slum with mattresses,
clothing and whatever else they could recover from their houses -- many of
which were set on fire by gangs from neighboring slums that are fighting
for control of the area.
   "I have no money, no house, no idea where I'm going," said Joseline
Louis, a 55-year-old fruit seller, as she pushed a cart with her
belongings.
   Witnesses said at least three people were killed, but United Nations
spokeswoman Sophie Boutaud de la Combe said she could not confirm any
casualties.
   A nearby compound run by the Haitian Evangelical Baptist Union became a
makeshift refugee camp for about 300 people. The compound is three miles
from Grand Ravine along dusty, windy roads patrolled by U.N. peacekeepers.
   Florice Mepolelet, 30, squatted in the corner of the crowded compound
with her two young children. She said her family has received only one bowl
of rice with bean sauce from the Red Cross since fleeing the neighborhood
on Thursday.
   Nadia Faneurd, 60, said she and her four children lost all their
belongings. "I don't have a house and I'm never going back," she said.
   Most houses in the slum -- home to several thousand people -- appeared
abandoned Friday, their tin roofs and concrete block walls blackened by
fire. Blood was smeared on the door and the floor of one house.
   Gang violence and kidnappings have surged in Haiti after months of
relative calm following the election of President Rene Preval in February.
   U.N. officials say the coordinated nature of the violence suggests an
attempt to stir chaos by well-armed, politically aligned gangs. Many are
loyal to ousted former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide and demand his
return from exile in South Africa.
   Danel La Roche, 23, showed a wound in his upper back that he said was
from a bullet that came through his window.
   "I have nothing to do with this fight," he said.
   Peacekeepers did not shoot at the gang members because civilians were in
the area, said de la Combe, the U.N. spokeswoman. She said they helped
extinguish the fires.
   Gangs also fired on U.N. positions in a slum on the northern edge of the
Port-au-Prince on Thursday, de la Combe said. No peacekeepers were wounded.