Gunfire crackled around Haiti's capital as hundreds of mourners gathered to bury five police officers killed in a week of violence pitting supporters of the U.S.-backed government and ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. Photographs of three officers who were beheaded sat beside their cremated remains in a police academy where the funerals were held Monday, while the open caskets of two others shot to death were prepared for burial as mourners sang hymns. Interim Prime Minister Gerard Latortue, President Boniface Alexandre and Guy Philippe, whose rebels helped oust Aristide in February, attended the funeral for Jean Rivelino Janvier, who was kidnapped and decapitated; Anselme Milfranc, who was also kidnapped and decapitated; and Hilaire Adolphe who was decapitated. Officers Jimmy Cambelland and Jodelet Jean were shot to death. [more
] Pictured above: The body of a man decapitated lies on the street in
La Salines, a seaside slum in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Wednesday, Oct. 6,
2004. [more ]- Loyalists want Aristide back [more ]