WORLD : 12 Killed, Houses Burned in Haiti

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — At least 12 people were killed and more than 400 houses burned in battles between landless farmers and sheriff’s deputies in central Haiti, according to independent radio today.

Some of those killed were shot, some drowned in a river trying to escape and others were hacked with machetes, Radio Haiti Inter said. Eight people were reported missing and scores were wounded, the radio said.

The violence occurred Thursday in Gervais, a hamlet in the Artibonite Valley of central Haiti about 60 miles north of Port-au-Prince, but details were not available until today.

Haiti Inter said clashes broke out after the county sheriff and his two deputies, all allegedly in the hire of landlord Polinice Volcy, tried to evict peasants occupying disputed land. The two deputies and one peasant were killed in the initial confrontation.