A gunbattle broke out between UN peacekeepers and supporters of former Haitian president Jean-Bertrand Aristide, wounding a UN peacekeeper for the first time in the force's four-month-old mission.
The clashes on Saturday, which also wounded a police officer, came as protesters in the northwestern city of Gonaives crowded outside a Mass for flood victims, accusing Haitian interim President Boniface Alexandre and Prime Minister Gerard Latortue -- who were in attendance -- of not doing enough to help hungry survivors three weeks after Tropical Storm Jeanne.
Heavy gunfire erupted in the capital of Port-au-Prince as about 150 Brazilian troops using armored vehicles and 150 Haitian police in trucks rolled into the volatile slum of Bel Air, where armed young men have been demanding the return of Aristide from exile, Brazilian Lieutenant Colonel Ezequiel Izaias said.
The peacekeepers "came under heavy fire and they returned fire," said UN spokesman Toussaint Kongo-Doudou.
The Brazilian soldier was wounded in the foot -- the first casualty among some 3,000 peacekeepers, Kongo-Doudou said. He said it appeared some gunmen were wounded, but it was unclear how many.
Troops and police arrested more than 60 people suspected of attacking them, Kongo-Doudou said.
The clashes came a day after the beheaded bodies of a father and son were found in the Port-au-Prince slum of La Saline.
Elsewhere, Argentine peacekeepers on Saturday guarded the cathedral in the flood-ravaged city of Gonaives from more than 100 protesters, who shouted insults at Latortue and Alexandre.
The protesters included at least 20 rebels in blue T-shirts whose uprising began in Gonaives and culminated in Aristide's Feb. 29 ouster.
"If the government doesn't take responsibility for things here, then we will. Remember, it was Gonaives that got rid of Aristide," rebel Wilfort Ferdinand told protesters and hundreds of onlookers.
An estimated 200,000 people are homeless in Gonaives, many living on sidewalks and rooftops. Beating on buckets and waving tree boughs, protesters snaked through the crowd chanting, "We are not afraid and we won't give in to pressure!"
The storm unleashed floods and mudslides that killed at least 1,870 people and left some 884 missing, most presumed dead. Victims' relatives wailed and wept at the ceremonial funeral.
In Port-au-Prince, at least 26 people have been killed in violence that erupted as Aristide supporters stepped up protests on Sept. 30, demanding their leader's return from exile in South Africa and an end to "the invasion" -- referring to US Marines who arrived as Aristide left and UN peacekeepers who took over in June.
Saturday's protest in Gonaives involved a different camp -- Aristide opponents.
It was a striking shift because the heckling by some of the rebels came in the same square where Latortue praised them as "freedom fighters" after Aristide left.
A small number in the crowd chanted, "Latortue's a thief!"
More than 500 worshippers filled the St. Charles Boromee Cathedral as a choir sang hymns during the Mass. The crowd of onlookers outside swelled to about 2,000 as Latortue and Alexandre walked out escorted by police to the nearby mayor's office.
"I am a son of Gonaives. I'm not going to let Gonaives die," Latortue said through a bullhorn before leaving for a cemetery where he and Alexandre laid a wreath at a mass grave where hundreds of storm victims are buried.
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