Police clash with anti-UN protesters in Haiti

Updated: 2011-09-15 10:12

(Agencies)

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Police clash with anti-UN protesters in Haiti

Members of the UN Military group CIMO shoot tear gas canisters at demonstrators, who called for MINUSTAH to leave Haiti, in the Champ de Mars section of Port-au-Prince Sept 14, 2011. [Photo/Agencies]

PORT-AU-PRINCE - Haitian police firing tear gas clashed on Wednesday with demonstrators who demanded the withdrawal of UN peacekeepers in a protest against the alleged rape of a man by a group of Uruguayan marines.

Police in the capital Port-au-Prince used the gas to stop about 300 protesters from entering a square in front of the damaged presidential palace where survivors of Haiti's 2010 earthquake are still sheltering in a tent and tarpaulin camp.

Traffic was disrupted as pedestrians and camp dwellers, many clutching small children, fled the swirling tear gas. Some demonstrators hurled stones at police officers.

The UN Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH) has faced a public outcry since the emergence earlier this month of a video shot by a cellphone camera that shows laughing Uruguayan marines pinning a young Haitian man face down on a mattress and apparently assaulting him sexually.

In the latest incident to besmirch the reputation of the more than 12,000-strong UN peacekeeping force in the poor Caribbean state, four Uruguayan troops suspected of being involved in the July 28 assault have been detained and are facing court-martial. The alleged victim, Johnny Jean, has testified to a Haitian judge that he was raped.

Yelling "MINUSTAH has to go" and "rapists", the demonstrators marched through streets of the earthquake-scarred capital. Some carried anti-UN banners, one of which called the UN peacekeepers in Haiti an occupation force.

"Justice for Johnny, justice for all the victims of rape by MINUSTAH, justice and reparation for all the Haitian people who are victims of the cholera epidemic brought by MINUSTAH," one of the protesters, 30-year-old Simon Mourin, told Reuters.

"They have to leave or we will be at war with them."

The police moved to stop the protesters from entering the Champs de Mars square in front of the palace as the government has prohibited public demonstrations from being held there.

MINUSTAH has launched an inquiry into the July incident. Uruguay has formally apologized to Haiti and condemned the actions of the accused soldiers as aberrations.

UN peacekeepers in Haiti have faced public anger before, notably over allegations that Nepalese UN troops brought a deadly cholera epidemic to the country after their camp latrines contaminated a river. This sparked riots last year against the UN peacekeeping contingent.

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