Haiti News

The death toll from Hurricane Jeanne now appears to be topping out at 3,000, an absolutely heartbreaking number in this country of just under eight million. To put it into perspective, it would be equivalent to losing about 104,000 US citizens.

Matters are getting worse, however:

Factional violence is impeding the flow of aid.

Supporters of former president Aristide are suspected to have commited some horrific crimes:

UN peacekeepers and Haitian police in armoured personnel carriers moved in on a downtown slum, trying to put down a campaign by loyalists of ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide who have carried out a number of beheadings, apparently in imitation of Iraqi insurgents.

On Wednesday, the headless body of a man lay in the street in La Salines, a seaside slum facing Port-au-Prince port. An Associated Press Television News cameraman watched a convoy of UN peacekeepers drive around the body. No head was in sight.

Three police officers were decapitated last week when Aristide supporters launched the guerrilla campaign, dubbed Operation Baghdad.

The UN forces have arrested some 75 suspects in an effort to quell the violence.

The question now: how to bring about calm so that help can get to those who need it. If you want to help, please click here and here to find out how.