Homeless Haitians: Aid halted to force them out

Homeless victims of Haiti's earthquake said Monday that police are halting deliveries of food and water to try to force them to leave their camp on the grounds of the prime minister's office . Police have padlocked gates to the camp where about 2,500 homeless people live under bed sheets propped on sticks on the sloping hill leading to the office. Stinking garbage with swarms of flies is piling up and portable latrines are filled, camp residents complained. Witnesses said police beat 22-year-old Dalida Jeanty in the morning after she picked up a broom to sweep around her tent. "They called her and she did not come so they beat her," said her cousin, Alix Jeanty. Friends and relatives carried the woman down the hill and U.N. peacekeepers arranged for her to be taken to the hospital. A police officer guarding the gate refused to give his name or to comment on the alleged beating or on accusations they have been turning away trucks carrying food and water for the past 10 days. Calls to the information ministry on Monday were unanswered, as was an e-mail to the prime minister's chief aide. "We've been here for a month and we were being treated well, but for the past two weeks we have been mistreated," said Markinson Midey, a 22-year-old student. "Anytime they bring food or water, the police make the trucks leave."