Police opened fire Wednesday on a crowd of apparently peaceful protesters demanding the release of detainees loyal to ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, and at least five people were killed, UN officials and witnesses said.
Wednesday's shooting came as the US State Department has confirmed it plans to waive an arms embargo to allow sales of thousands of arms for the Haitian police, whom critics accuse of brutality, summary executions and persecution of pro-Aristide loyalists.
US officials and the interim Haitian government they helped install say the police are outgunned and outnumbered by politically allied gangsters.
PHOTO: AP
Witnesses said police drove up behind demonstrators Wednesday and shot into the crowd as it approached the headquarters of the UN peacekeeping mission in Haiti's capital, Port-au-Prince.
"The police started to fire," said one witness, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of his safety. "People started to run and shout hostile slogans at the police."
Five people were killed and an unknown number wounded, they said.
The witnesses said the officers arrived in department pickup trucks and wore police uniforms and masks -- standard uniform for the riot squad.
UN mission spokesman Damian Onses-Cardona confirmed that police opened fire on demonstrators but had no further information.
UN civilian police spokesman Dan Moskaluk said peacekeepers called to the scene after the shooting found five bodies. He called the march an "unauthorized, illegal demonstration."
An official at Port-au-Prince morgue, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the bodies of five young men were brought in from the march.
Haitian police could not be reached for comment.
After the shooting, witnesses said some protesters fled to the pro-Aristide slum stronghold of Bel-Air, where at least two cars were set ablaze and automatic gunfire erupted when firefighters arrived.
A Brazilian peacekeeper was slightly injured by a bullet to the arm, the military spokesman said.
Residents hid in doorways as police with high-powered rifles peered around corners.
The shootings marked the third time in three months that police have opened fire on pro-Aristide protesters. Three people were killed in previous incidents, though police deny responsibility.
Haiti has been mired in outbreaks of violence that has killed at least 400 people since a three-week rebellion ousted Aristide on Feb. 29 last year.
The interim government has been criticized for the detentions without trial of hundreds of pro-Aristide officials and supporters.
UN peacekeepers and Haitian police have struggled to assert control over sprawling Port-au-Prince slums where pro- and anti-Aristide gangs hold sway. They have also increasingly clashed with former soldiers who helped topple Aristide, control some rural towns, and refuse to disarm.
Many fear the violence could thwart efforts to hold general elections in October and November.
Human rights groups and government opponents have accused the police of killing hundreds of unarmed civilians in nighttime raids on pro-Aristide slums.
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