Haitian police launch third arms amnesty

AFP< SUNDAY, MARCH 28, 2004 03:44:51 AM >

PORT-AU-PRINCE : Haiti 's police force on Saturday launched its third arms amnesty since ex-president Jean Bertrand Aristide fled into exile last month in a bid to rid the capital's streets of weapons.

The operation was initiated in the Saline neighborhood of Port-au-Prince .

About 20 guns, including rifles, pistols, an Israeli Uzi machine gun and American assault rifles, have been recovered so far, police officials said.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/586966.cms

Haitians Wary of Disarming as Weapons Trickle In
GHOST ARSENAL STILL HAUNTS HAITI

Experts estimate marauding gangs like the "chimeres" -- or ghosts -- loyal to Aristide, and rebels still in control of vast swaths of northern Haiti, have a combined arsenal of tens of thousands of weapons.

But in a land racked by civil unrest where drug smuggling and illegal arms dealing are staple local industries, a gun is a hard habit to kick.


Watching as local youth leaders in Port-au-Prince's La Saline slum laid out around 20 mostly useless arms -- from assault rifles to crudely welded handmade pistols -- 28-year-old "John" clutched gruesome photographs of a friend he said was murdered by a death-squad of Aristide foes a week ago as sporadic violence continued.

One small northeastern town, Fort Liberte, is currently in the grip of rapists, murderers and thieves freed from the local jail during the uprising and French patrols have stopped short of confronting them.

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=worldNews&storyID=4677463&pageNumber=0