U.N. Observers, Diplomats Rescue Haiti Bishop From Mob
U.N. observers and diplomats rescued a Haitian bishop being beaten by a mob of 40 attackers as he left a Mass that had turned into a passionate demonstration for ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.
The assault on Roman Catholic Bishop Willy Romelus was the worst attack on a church official since the bloody 1991 military coup that overthrew democratically elected Aristide, himself a populist priest whose parishioners were shot and stabbed during a 1988 Mass.
“Had we not been there, Bishop Romelus might have been killed,” said Michael Moller, the Danish coordinator of a joint United Nations-Organization of American States team that arrived here this month to monitor human rights.
The team’s attempts Thursday afternoon to stop the violence was the mission’s first act to protect human rights at a public forum.
Moller told reporters police left seconds before the crowd appeared and grabbed the bishop.
The bishop was shaken and bruised but not badly hurt. He was taken in a diplomatic limousine to an unidentified embassy and then to a home used to shelter church personnel in danger.
Moller said he protested in person to Foreign Minister Francois Benoit.
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