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Twenty armed men blocked a road and
tried to hijack a convoy of food for earthquake victims, but were
driven off by police gunfire, U.N. officials said Tuesday.


      The attack on the convoy as it carried supplies from an airport
in the southern town of Jeremie underscored what the United Nations
calls a "potentially volatile" security situation as frustration
has grown at the slow pace of aid since the Jan. 12 earthquake.


      Most quake victims are still living outside in squalid tents of
sheets and sticks and aid officials acknowedge they have not yet
gotten food to the majority of those in need. Mobs have stolen food
and looted goods from their neighbors in the camps, prompting many
to band together or stay awake at night to prevent raids.


      About 20 armed men blockaded a street Saturday and attacked a
convoy carrying food from the airport in Jeremie, according to UN
spokesman Vicenzo Pugliese. U.N. and Haitian officers fired warning
gunshots and the men fled the scene, Pugliese said. No injuries
were reported and no one was hurt.


      Haitian police have increased their own patrols and are
accompanying UN police guarding aid distribution.


      "The overall security situation across the country remains
stable but potentially volatile," the UN mission said in a
statement Tuesday.


      In Jacmel, also a southern city, 33 escaped prisoners were
apprehended Sunday, the U.N. said. Many prisoners escaped when
prisons collapsed.

      While Haitians are still mourning friends and relatives, many
still unburied, anger at the government's sluggish response to the
quake is feeding political resentment.


      Hundreds gathered Monday at a gravel pit in Titanyen where
countless earthquake victims have been dumped, turning a
remembrance ceremony for the dead into one of the first organized
political rallies since the disaster.


      Many denounced President Rene Preval and called for the return
of ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.


      "Preval has done nothing for this country, nothing for the
victims," said Jean Delcius, 54, who was bused to the memorial
service by Aristide's development foundation. "We need someone new
to take charge here. If it's not Aristide, then someone
competent."


      Critics were already blaming Preval for rising unemployment,
corruption and greed. Then the earthquake struck, flattening most
government buildings and turning the capital into an apocalyptic
vision of broken concrete and twisted steel.


      Preval has rarely been seen in public since, leaving his
ministers to defend his performance.


      Haiti's government also has had to deal with the 10 Americans
who tried to take a busload of undocumented Haitian children out of
the country. The Idaho-based church group was being held without
charges at a police station on Tuesday as officials debated what to
do with them.


      Prime Minister Max Bellerive told The Associated Press that
"what they were doing was wrong," and said they could be
prosecuted in the United States because Haiti's shattered court
system may not be able to cope with a trial.


      "It is clear now that they were trying to cross the border
without papers. It is clear now that some of the children have live
parents," Bellerive said. "And it is clear now that they knew
what they were doing was wrong."


      U.S. Embassy officials would not say if a U.S. court process is
possible.


      Meanwhile, discontent with Preval appears to be growing, three
weeks after the disaster.


      "He came Saturday and then just left," said Jude John Peter,
23, in a camp across from Haiti's demolished National Palace, where
some 2,000 people are crammed into tents. "He's nowhere to be seen
at first and then leaves when things get hot."


      Aristide also faced criticism during his presidency. The former
slum priest had a huge grassroots following among Haiti's poor but
was ousted in 2004 as corruption and drug trafficking grew rampant
and some of former supporters accused him of abandoning his early
followers to line his own pockets.


      Aristide has said that he would like to return from his exile in
South Africa - a move that would add political instability to the
post-quake chaos and likely face resistance from the international
community.


      Before legislative elections scheduled for Feb. 28 were
postponed, Haiti's presidentially appointed electoral council had
excluded more than a dozen political parties from the next round of
elections in 2011. Opposition groups accused the council of trying
to help Preval's Unity party win majorities in parliament so he
could push through constitutional reforms and expand executive
power.


      The most prominent excluded party is Aristide's former Lavalas
party, which now plans more demonstrations. That will force
thousands of American soldiers and U.N. peacekeepers to worry about
containing political violence as well as providing relief.


      Some who attended the memorial said they simply wanted new
leadership. Voter discontent is a constant in impoverished Haiti,
where for years after the dictatorship, some even claimed they
wanted the return of Jean-Claude Duvalier, whose father, Francois
"Papa Doc" Duvalier, launched a 29-year family dynasty of terror.


      Tens of thousands were killed by the Duvaliers - many of them
also buried anonymously in the gravel fields of Titanyen.


      Across the capital, Haitians have voiced anger over the hasty
burials of earthquake victims.

      Many Haitians believe that bodies must be properly buried and
remembered by relatives and family so their spirits can pass on to
heaven. In Voodoo, some believe that improper burials can trap
spirits between two worlds.


      The mourners on Monday gathered near a white metal cross erected
on a mound of gravel that covered nameless bodies dropped into a
pit by dump trucks. The corpse of a woman lay uncovered at the base
of a nearby gravel pile.


      One by one, people tied black pieces of cloth to the cross as a
Catholic priest sprinkled the ground with holy water. A choir sang
traditional Haitian hymns as religious leaders prayed for the dead.


      "We've come here to bless these people, to bless this spot,"
said the Rev. Patrick Joseph Neptune.


      Meanwhile, others in the crowd planned another political rally
for Tuesday.

      "If Preval comes, we will kill him!" they shouted.


      Associated Press Writers Frank Jordans contributed to this
report from Geneva.

Gallery

Disasters

Twenty armed men blocked a road and
tried to hijack a convoy of food for earthquake victims, but were
driven off by police gunfire, U.N. officials said Tuesday.


Haiti food convoy attacked; UN warns of volatility

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