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Doctors Without Borders ambulance in Haiti attacked, two patients killed

by Reuters

   PORT-AU-PRINCE --

   Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said on Wednesday that at least two
   patients were killed when its ambulance was stopped and attacked
   earlier this week in Haiti's capital Port-au-Prince.

   The MSF staff said they were violently attacked on Monday after
   "members of a vigilante group and law enforcement officers" stopped the
   ambulance.

   The ambulance, transporting three young people with gunshot wounds, was
   halted about 100 meters from the MSF hospital in the Drouillard area of
   the capital and forced to transfer the patients to a public hospital,
   MSF said.

   The group said police attempted to arrest the patients before escorting
   the ambulance to the hospital, where "law enforcement officers and
   members of a self-defense group surrounded the ambulance, slashed the
   tires, and tear-gassed MSF staff inside the vehicle to force them out."

   The wounded patients were taken a short distance away and at least two
   were executed, the group said.

   "The act is a shocking display of violence and it seriously calls into
   question MSF's ability to continue delivering essential care to the
   Haitian people," said Christophe Garnier, MSF's head of mission.

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