Gunmen Take Haiti Ex-Prime Minister from Prison

[Rose Siding]

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (Reuters) - Gunmen stormed Haiti's main prison on Saturday and drove away with jailed former Prime Minister Yvon Neptune and other inmates linked to ousted ex-President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, witnesses said.

Neptune and former Interior Minister Jocelerme Privert appeared to have been taken out at gunpoint by the attackers, who sent poorly armed prison guards fleeing the National Penitentiary in Port-au-Prince, they said.

A police source speaking on condition of anonymity said up to 500 of the prison's 1,200 inmates may have escaped during the attack. One off-duty prison guard was killed.
...
"When they arrived at the gate of the National Penitentiary, Neptune did not want to walk any further. One gunman raised his weapon and forced him to walk and get into the pickup," Dameus told Reuters.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A38469-2005Feb19.html?nav=headlines

[aquart]

1. For what purpose?

To kill and permanently remove them?

Or does this have anything to do with the emissary Brazil (was it Brazil?) sent to Aristide some months ago?

[DELUSIONAL]

2. Another one of the bush gang's messes.

[LinuxInsurgent]

3. Bush...

picked ex-Duvaliar murderers as his buddies in haiti...he trained them in the Dominican Republic and let them loose upon the land.

This is what happens when organized murders are set loose upon the population.

[tinanator]

5. and the filthy yahoo article called the coup a "rebellion"

free Haiti. again.

[struggle4progress]

4. Scores at Large After Haiti Prison Attack

By PETER PRENGAMAN
Associated Press Writer
February 20, 2005, 7:45 PM EST

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti -- Haitian police on Sunday were hunting for nearly 500 prisoners who escaped after an armed attack on the national penitentiary that sparked a riot and left one guard dead.

Two prominent allies of ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, who had been rushed to a secure location during the attack Saturday night, were returned to the prison, authorities said.

Guards had rushed former Prime Minister Yvon Neptune and former Interior Minister Jocelerme Privert to a secret location when the attack occurred and inmates began rioting, and the two were later turned over to U.N. soldiers, Damian Onses-Cardona, a spokesman for the U.N. peacekeeping mission, told The Associated Press.

"They were taken back to prison in U.N. vehicles," Onses-Cardona said Sunday. "They insisted on returning to make clear they didn't try to escape." <snip>

http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/world/sns-ap-haiti-prison-attack,0,3536031.story?coll=ny-top-headlines


Deposed Haitian officials recaptured after violent prison raid

PORT-AU-PRINCE (AFP) - A group of armed men stormed a prison in the Haitian capital and rescued two former officials of ousted president Jean Bertrand Aristide's regime being held there as hundreds of other prisoners escaped, officials said.

The two men were later recaptured. <snip>

Former prime minister Yvon Neptune and former interior minister Jocelerme Privert were recaptured just hours after the breakout at the prison in the Haitian capital, said police spokeswoman Gessy Coicou. <snip>

http://www.turkishpress.com/world/news.asp?id=050220035148.p6tnnmpc.xml

[tinanator]

6. regime or administration?

tomayto tamahto?

[Rose Siding]

7. Aristide allies recaptured, back in prison

sorry about the source...

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti -- Two key allies of ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide were back in their prison cells yesterday amid conflicting accounts of who was responsible for their breakout with 480 other prisoners on Saturday by a handful of heavily armed gunmen.

Police spokeswoman Gessy Coicou said former Prime Minister Yvon Neptune and former Interior Minister Jocelerme Privert had escaped in the Saturday prison break and were recaptured by police.

But Damian Onses-Cardona, a spokesman for the U.N. peacekeeping mission in Haiti, said the two had sought refuge in the house of a third prisoner, where they contacted the United Nations and asked to be returned to the national penitentiary.
...
It is not clear how such a massive prison break could have taken place in broad daylight just three blocks from the national palace and police headquarters in downtown Port-au-Prince, where 125 U.N. riot police and dozens of Haitian police officers stand guard.

http://www.wpherald.com/Latin_America/storyview.php?StoryID=20050221-095653-6463r

[struggle4progress]

8. Conflicting accounts. See post #4.

WPHerald stance unsurprising.