U.N. Peacekeeping More Assertive, Creating Risk for Civilians
On July 6, about 1,400 heavily armed U.N. peacekeepers from Brazil, Peru and Jordan, backed by Argentine and Chilean helicopters, marched into a Haitian slum for an early-morning raid on the home of Emmanuel “Dread” Wilme, a gang leader who was agitating for the return to power of former Haitian president Jean-Bertrand Aristide. Operation Iron Fist killed Wilme and at least six other gang members, according to a confidential U.N. account of the raid. But the bloody gun battle between the U.N. forces and Wilme’s followers failed to dislodge the gang from its Port-au-Prince slum turf and led to the injury of dozens of civilians, primarily women and children, according to U.N. officials and an American doctor who tended the wounded.Full Story
