Peace Corps suspends Haiti operations

[Eugene]

Peace Corps suspends Haiti operations

Thursday, June 16, 2005 Posted: 10:41 PM EDT (0241 GMT)

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) -- The Peace Corps has suspended operations
in Haiti and evacuated its 16 volunteers because of
increasing violence, officials said Thursday, even as gunmen
wounded two U.N. peacekeepers during a shootout in a slum.

The withdrawal comes three weeks after the State Department warned
Americans against traveling to Haiti and ordered nonessential U.S.
personnel to leave. All 16 volunteers left Haiti earlier this week,
Peace Corps spokeswoman Barbara Daly said.

EDIT

The Peace Corps volunteers had been working in rural areas on projects
including small business development, agricultural assistance and
HIV/AIDS prevention, Daly said. She said the Peace Corps would
consider returning to Haiti "once the situation has stabilized."

"It's very disappointing for us to have to leave," Daly said. "We
determined that it was in the best interest of the volunteers that we
suspend the program at this time."

EDIT

http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/americas/06/16/haiti.peacecorps.ap/index.html