U.N. troops, Haiti police surround city

[Freddie Stubbs]

STEVENSON JACOBS

Associated Press


PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti - Sporadic bursts of gunfire rang out Thursday as hundreds of U.N. troops and police surrounded a teeming seaside city in advance of an offensive aimed at disarming street gangs and restoring order to Haiti's violent capital ahead of fall elections, officials said.

The operation in Cite Soleil, a crowded slum that is built on landfill from Port-au-Prince and borders the capital, comes amid surging violence that has killed hundreds since September, and follows recent clashes in the countryside that left two peacekeepers and two ex-soldiers dead.

Criticized for inaction, leaders of the U.N. mission have pledged to crack down on armed groups in this volatile Caribbean nation.

In Cite Soleil, repeated bursts of gunfire were heard and armed men fired at a car carrying an American freelance photographer and her driver. A bullet entered the vehicle but no one was injured.

more: http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/world/americas/11277592.htm

[acmavm]

1. Gee I'm confused (not unusual for me). I thought that everything was

fine and dandy down there since the coup. Do you mean to tell me that another bush** administration supported usurpation has FAILED? As Gomer Pyle would say "Suh-prise, suh-prise."

[Blind Tiresias]

2. Just so you know...

Nothing is ever fine and dandy in Haiti. I have worked there a couple of times before the coup and Cite Soleil is THE worst ghetto I have ever seen. We could not enter the slum without armed escort b/c the gangs that run the place would have probably jumped us. The water that supplies the area is absolutely filthy (you could see the tapeworms floating in it), and it smelled like pure human excrement. There were literally dead bodies scattered along the "streets" which were of course unpaved. Trash and unsanitary waste everywhere. I could not imagine someone living in a place like that.

Cite Soelil is the worst spots in Haiti, but that poor country is fucked up beyond help, IMO. Nothing is ever fine and dandy in Haiti, that place has and will always have problems that dwarf ours, it doenst matter if Aristide, Bush or Jesus, Vishnu, and Mohammed combined ran that place.

[seriousstan]

3. Do you have any idea what site you are at?

This is the piss and moan, everything revolves around Bush and no other factors are in play site. How dare you bring fact into a discussion. Do it again and I will have to alert. :sarcasm: