Haitians 'killed in police raid'

Haiti has been ravaged by poverty and violence

At least nine people were killed in the presence of police in a raid during a football match in Haiti's capital, Port-au-Prince, a UN probe has found.

The head of the UN mission said the killings were committed last month by a group of people, some of whom were wearing Haitian police uniforms.

He said the incident was unacceptable and that the UN would work with the Haitian police to end such crimes.

Several officers are being questioned about their possible involvement.

'Unacceptable'

The football stadium killings, by machete and firearms, took place in Martissant, a poor area of the city, on 20 August.

Witnesses said the people conducting the raid had been looking for supporters of the ousted President, Jean Bertrand Aristide.

"These planned and targeted murders were committed by a group of people dressed in the clothes of the Haitian police and by civilians in the presence of police officers," Juan Gabriel Valdes, head of the UN mission in Haiti, said.

"This was a horrible and unacceptable incident, from which we must take all the lessons."

Gang warfare

Mr Valdes added that the UN would work with the interim government and the police to "put an end to all acts of lynching and all criminal acts perpetrated by police, by people like police or by common criminals who take justice in their own hands against their opponents".

Newly-appointed police chief Mario Andresol recently said he had received "reports of police summarily executing suspects".

Some officers, he says, are operating outside the law or using outside elements to go into slums considered too dangerous for police.

Haiti has been riven by gang warfare and political violence, especially in the Port-au-Prince, where supporters and opponents of the exiled Mr Aristide regularly fight bloody battles.

The unrest has disrupted the registration process for elections due in November.