On Aug. 12 in the locality of Bannann in the commune of Anse-à-Pitres, four former soldiers macheted a young man to death, according to area residents.

The victim, known as Flang, was ambushed by the former soldiers, known in the area as Dumas, Domingue, Osmar, and Hénoc, according to accounts. The attack happened shortly after the Bannann justice of the peace, Gentèl, sent word for Flang to return to him the keys to a house the victim was renting from him. According to the victim’s younger brother, Gentèl hired the former soldiers to kill Flang over a debt of 15,000 Dominican pesos (US$442).

The attackers sounded a conch shell before launching their attack, Flang’s brother said. The victim tried to run away, but the attackers caught him and hacked him to death, he said.

Residents say that the victim’s body was cut into three separate pieces, which Gentèl arranged to be buried in a hastily dug grave without consulting the family.

The former soldiers escaped to Pedernales, the Dominican town just across the border from Anse-à-Pitres. They told Dominican authorities that they were fleeing persecution in Haiti.

However, citizens of Anse-à-Pitres, outraged by the savagery of the murder, pressured Dominican authorities, who had the four suspects arrested. Now the Haitian government must make a formal request that the men be returned to Haiti to stand trial.

Gentèl has already gone into hiding.

Hinche:
Commandos Sow Terror

A group of unidentified armed men attacked the home of Claudel Cazeau, the Haitian government delegate to Hinche, on the evening of Aug. 25.

Cazeau charged that the attackers, who fired shots at and around his house, were trying to assassinate him and sow terror in the town.

Indeed, gunfire was heard all over the town that night. The armed men also fired on the residence of a group of engineers who had come from Port-au-Prince to work on the reconstruction of the public place in Hinche. No one was wounded or arrested.

The situation is not helped by the fact that Hinche has had not electricity for over a year.

Anti-government guerillas, known as the San Manman (Motherless) Army, have carried out numerous attacks in recent months in the towns of Lascahobas and Belladère, some 30 kilometers south of Hinche. It was not clear if last week’s attacks were related.

Cazeau asked to Haitian police to launch a full investigation the attacks.

Mirebalais:
Attackers, Seeking Husband, Kill Wife

On Aug. 28, unidentified armed men killed Elisiane Estimphor, a young woman of about 35, in the rural hamlet of Gaskòy, in the commune of Mirebalais. According to the Mirebalais Justice of the Peace Sergo Guillaume, the men wanted the victim to tell them the whereabouts of her husband.

The men also set ablaze three houses, shot dead two dogs, and wounded two cows.

Petite Rivière:
Literacy Program Stumbling

Teachers deployed around Petite Rivière de l’Artibonite as a part of the government’s “Alfa” literacy program have not been paid and may soon leave their posts, said Jean Jeannot Verseau, the coordinator of the local government there (CASEC).

The literacy program in that area is reaching a point of “breakdown,”Verseau said on Aug. 19. While recognizing that there is a “socio-economic crisis” presently afflicting Haiti, Verseau pleaded with central government authorities to root out mismanagement and corruption in the administration of the literacy program.