Toronto Star: Jordanian peacekeeper killed in Haiti
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Jordanian peacekeeper killed in Haiti, Dec. 25, 2005.
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP-CP) — A United Nations peacekeeper in Haiti was shot to death while on patrol in a slum that has seen almost daily violence since the ouster of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, a UN military spokesman said Sunday.
The Jordanian soldier was on patrol in Cite Soleil when he was shot in the head and killed on Saturday, according to Lt.-Col. Fernando da Cunha Mattos, UN military spokesman.
A Canadian retired RCMP officer was shot and killed in Cite Soleil last week. Mark Bourque, 57, from Stoneham, Que., was in Haiti with 23 other Canadian police experts as part of a team assembled by a non-profit agency to help train the Haitian National Police during the elections.
UN authorities declined to release further details, including the soldier's name, which was being withheld pending notification of his family.
Cite Soleil, where gun battles between peacekeepers and gangs take place almost daily, remains the most insecure place in Haiti ahead of national elections scheduled for Jan. 8. Observers fear the gangs could disrupt the elections.
Haitian police do not enter the slum, which a battalion of 1,500 Jordanian peacekeepers in armoured vehicles has pledged to reclaim from the gangs.
Some 7,600 UN peacekeepers arrived in Haiti in June 2004 to stabilize the country after Aristide's Feb. 29, 2004, ouster.
Seven peacekeepers have died in action since June 2004, according to the UN.
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP-CP) — A United Nations peacekeeper in Haiti was shot to death while on patrol in a slum that has seen almost daily violence since the ouster of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, a UN military spokesman said Sunday.
The Jordanian soldier was on patrol in Cite Soleil when he was shot in the head and killed on Saturday, according to Lt.-Col. Fernando da Cunha Mattos, UN military spokesman.
A Canadian retired RCMP officer was shot and killed in Cite Soleil last week. Mark Bourque, 57, from Stoneham, Que., was in Haiti with 23 other Canadian police experts as part of a team assembled by a non-profit agency to help train the Haitian National Police during the elections.
UN authorities declined to release further details, including the soldier's name, which was being withheld pending notification of his family.
Cite Soleil, where gun battles between peacekeepers and gangs take place almost daily, remains the most insecure place in Haiti ahead of national elections scheduled for Jan. 8. Observers fear the gangs could disrupt the elections.
Haitian police do not enter the slum, which a battalion of 1,500 Jordanian peacekeepers in armoured vehicles has pledged to reclaim from the gangs.
Some 7,600 UN peacekeepers arrived in Haiti in June 2004 to stabilize the country after Aristide's Feb. 29, 2004, ouster.
Seven peacekeepers have died in action since June 2004, according to the UN.
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