Prominent rebel leader Remissainthe Ravix shot dead

(10 Apr 2005)
FILE - Port Au Prince, Haiti. October 14, 2004
1. Wide shot Remissainthe Ravix, with rebel soldiers
2. Mid shot Remissainthe Ravix talking
3. Various of United Nations soldiers

STORYLINE:

Haitian police shot and killed a prominent rebel leader in a gunbattle on Saturday, the latest in a series of clashes that have pitted police and UN peacekeepers against ex-soldiers and street gangs.

Police killed Remissainthe Ravix during a shootout with 10 armed men in an industrial area of Port-au-Prince, said UN civilian police spokesman Dan Moskaluk.

Ravix was one of four key leaders of the bloody three-week revolt that led up to President Jean-Bertrand Aristide's overthrow in February 2004.

The barrel-chested rebel, who often appeared before reporters wearing camouflage fatigues, was a sergeant in the Haitian army that Aristide disbanded in 1995.

The shooting broke out as Haitian and UN civilian police were searching for suspects in a shooting on Friday that left a UN civilian employee from India lightly injured.

Police had been hunting for Ravix for weeks, accusing him of killing four policemen February 6. and orchestrating attacks on police stations last year.

He had proclaimed his innocence and gone into hiding.

Ravix's death could stoke anger among former soldiers who refuse to lay down their weapons and control several rural towns, UN officials said.

The 7,400-strong UN peacekeeping mission has increasingly confronted ex-soldiers and pro- and anti- Aristide street gangs amid concerns violence could threaten elections in October and November.

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