Haiti Protesters Shot Dead

Haiti remains tense in the wake of Monday’s violent clashes between protesters and United Nations troops that left at least two dead and 16 wounded in Cap-Haitien, the country’s second largest city.

The port city, approximately 300 kilometers north of the capital of Port-au-Prince, was still largely paralyzed on Tuesday, with schools, public offices and businesses shut, streets blocked by barricades of burning tires and sporadic gunfire reported. The bridge leading to the city’s airport was blocked with welded metal barriers.

The United Nations sent a contingent of Spanish troops to reinforce its garrison in Cap-Haitien.

Violence erupted on Monday after thousands of demonstrators took to the city’s streets to protest against the UN occupation force (known as MINUSTAH, for United Nations Stabilization Mission In Haiti), which many blame for the cholera epidemic that has now claimed more than 1,000 lives, and to denounce the government of Prime Minister Rene Preval for failing to adequately confront the spread of the disease.

The UN troops and Haitian police attempted to disperse the crowd with tear gas, setting off a stampede in which several people were injured. Demonstrators responded with a hail of rocks and, according to UN officials, gunfire. The troops fired on the crowd, killing one youth with a bullet through the back in Quartier Morin, just outside the city. Another man was shot to death in Cap-Haitien. The number of wounded was reportedly as high as 16, with several in serious condition.......

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