Lape Pou Cité Soleil
According to event organizers, five to six thousand people attended the demonstration for peace on Thursday, February 15, 2007 in Cité Soleil, Haiti's largest and most desperate slum. The demonstration comes almost a week after the UN launched a large-scale operation in the Boston area of Cité Soleil on Friday, February 9.
According to residents, four were killed and seven injured in the operation. One of the key demands of the demonstration was that the school taken by MINUSTAH in an effort to put pressure on Evens and take control of Boston, be returned to the residents of Soleil, and that the children who attended the school be allowed to return to classes.
In recent months, MINUSTAH has mounted increasing pressure on armed gangs operating in Cité Soleil. 350 more UN soldiers are being sent in the coming weeks in order to bolster the mission's presence in the slum. The UN has promised to go after Amaral and Bélony next; the armed leaders of the Bellecoure and Bwa Neuf zones of Cité Soleil respectively. Civic leaders and residents in the area have continually condemned what they deem excessive use of force by the UN in operations while the UN in turn maintains they only fire unless fired upon and use care while operating in the area.
Two students stand in front of the school the UN took as a base during last Friday's operation.