[R-G] Haitian activist planning senate run reported missing

[Anthony Fenton]

Copyright 2007 Associated Press
All Rights Reserved
Associated Press Worldstream

August 15, 2007 Wednesday 7:57 PM GMT

SECTION: INTERNATIONAL NEWS

LENGTH: 238 words

HEADLINE: Haitian activist planning senate run reported missing

DATELINE: PORT-AU-PRINCE Haiti

BODY:


A senate candidate the the party of ousted former President Jean- 
Bertrand Aristide has disappeared and may have been kidnapped, police  
and supporters said Wednesday.

Lovinsky Pierre-Antoine, a human rights activist and member of  
Aristide's Fanmi Lavalas party, was reported missing by his family on  
Sunday, police spokesman Frantz Lerebours said. Police found Pierre- 
Antoine's abandoned car near his Port-au-Prince home.

"He's still considered a missing person because we have not received  
a ransom request," Lerebours told The Associated Press.

Pierre-Antoine was recently picked to represent Fanmi Lavalas in  
senate elections at the end of the year, colleague Gilbert Elmeus  
told private broadcaster Radio Kiskeya.

Supporters said Pierre-Antoine had received threats because of his  
ties to Aristide, who left the impoverished Caribbean country in 2004  
after an uprising and is now exiled in South Africa.

Pierre-Antoine leads the September 30 Foundation, which backs  
Aristide supporters victimized during the former president's ouster  
in 1991 and 2004. He was a vocal critic of the 2004-2006 U.S.-backed  
interim government that replaced Aristide as well as a 9,000-strong  
U.N. peacekeeping force sent to restore order after his departure.

Kidnappings for ransom soared in Haiti after the 2004 uprising but  
have dropped sharply since late last year, when President Rene Preval  
and U.N. peacekeepers launched a crackdown on street gangs.