AU-PRINCE, April 13, SPA--A U.N. police officer was dragged from his car and shot dead as violence flared in Haiti's capital following the dismissal of the country's prime minister and the announcement of a plan to slash the price of rice, according to AP. Haiti's government had hoped that the rice subsidy and Parliament's firing of Prime Minister Jacques Edouard Alexis on Saturday would defuse rage over rising the food prices that had produced days of deadly rioting and looting. But later Saturday, a Nigerian U.N. officer bringing food to his unit was pulled from a car and killed execution style with a gunshot to his neck in Port-au-Prince, U.N. officials said. The officer, identified in a forensics report as Cpl. Nagya Aminu, 36, drove a marked U.N. vehicle into a crowded clothing market near the cathedral when he was attacked, U.N. police spokesman Fred Blaise said. The incident is the first execution-style killing of a U.N. peacekeeper since the mission came to Haiti in 2004, Blaise said. Two Haitian men were detained for questioning, including a local television journalist who was covering the incident. When Associated Press reporters arrived at the scene shortly after, several market stalls on both sides of the street were on fire. Many in the crowd chanted «Down with MINUSTAH,» referring to the U.N. mission by its French acronym. The attack came hours after Haitian lawmakers ousted Alexis, who they blamed for not boosting food production and refusing to set a timetable for the departure of U.N. peacekeepers. «I think that will satisfy the people,» Opposition Sen. Youri Latortue he said after 16 senators out of 27 voted to remove the prime minister on Saturday. President Rene Preval immediately said he would seek a replacement for the ousted Jacques Edouard Alexis. The prime minister took office in 2006 with Preval's backing to head a Cabinet meant to unite the poor and fractious nation.
