PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — Heavy gunfire erupted yesterday when police streamed into a slum stronghold of ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide as his loyalists blocked streets with flaming debris to mark the 10th anniversary of Mr. Aristide’s return from his first exile.
Tensions surged in the capital, where two weeks of shootouts and beheadings have killed at least 48 persons. Former Haitian soldiers, who hold sway over much of the countryside, are threatening to deploy into Port-au-Prince over the objections of the interim government, which is backed by an overextended and beleaguered United Nations peacekeeping force.
A U.N. spokesman said yesterday the U.N. peacekeeping mission in Haiti, which has been operating at less than half its authorized strength, will receive several hundred new members by the end of October.
A unit of 125 police from China is expected to arrive tomorrow, Stephane Dujarric told reporters in New York. A further 622 Sri Lankan troops are expected from Oct. 25 to Oct. 29 and troops making up a Spanish-Moroccan battalion are also expected at the end of the month.
The U.S. State Department urged all nonessential embassy personnel and family members to leave the country. The department also upgraded its travel warning for Haiti, saying moving in and outside the capital can be hazardous because police are ineffective and peacekeepers are not fully deployed.
The violence is crippling a massive humanitarian mission to help about 200,000 homeless survivors of Tropical Storm Jeanne in northwestern Gonaives city, where several relief agencies have suspended operations, Oxfam spokeswoman Maite Alvarez said yesterday.
It was not clear who was doing the shooting yesterday as police in cars and on foot entered the barricaded Bel Air slum.
A few hundred supporters of Mr. Aristide’s Lavalas Family party held a peaceful demonstration there earlier, Haiti’s Radio Plus reported, broadcasting chants of “Only Lavalas, no matter what happens.”
The crackle of automatic gunfire also exploded in two other neighborhoods.
Aristide backers are demanding his return from exile as they mark his restoration to power in 1994 through the intervention of 20,000 U.S. troops who ended three years of brutal military rule.
Mr. Aristide fled again this past Feb. 29 as former soldiers leading a bloody rebellion neared Port-au-Prince.
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