From Deseret News archives:
LDS missionaries leave Haiti for safety
LDS Church spokesman Dale Bills said that all of the missionaries in the Port-au-Prince mission had been "transported out of the country" because of safety concerns.
"This precautionary action was taken after the U.S. Department of State recommended that all American citizens leave the country due to the volatile security situation," Bills said in an e-mailed statement Friday. "Missionaries at the MTC (Missionary Training Center) waiting to travel to Haiti have been reassigned to other missions."
Bills said there were a total of 25 missionaries in Haiti, 15 young men and five senior couples. He did not say where they had been reassigned, or where the missionaries who were scheduled to go to Haiti will be sent.
"The evacuations were carried out in a timely and orderly fashion to ensure safety," Bills said. All missionaries were out by Wednesday.
The U.S. State Department issued a travel warning May 25 that discouraged all Americans from traveling to Haiti. It also said that all nonessential embassy employees, as well as the family members of all embassy personnel, were evacuated.
"Americans are reminded of the potential for spontaneous demonstrations and violent confrontations between armed groups," the warning said. "Visitors and residents must remain vigilant because of the absence of an effective police force."
The warning also said that a number of areas within Port-au-Prince are off-limits to embassy staff, and can be extremely dangerous. There is a mandatory curfew for embassy staff that visitors were encouraged to follow as well.
Currently, more than 7,000 United Nations peacekeepers in Haiti are confronting street gangs and drug traffickers, although only with limited successes. The country has been in turmoil since an armed rebellion forced President Jean-Bertrand Aristide to flee in February 2004.
Much of the recent violence, which has included kidnappings of foreign government officials and gunbattles that have injured aid workers, is being blamed on supporters of Aristide. Since September, more than 700 people have been killed.
The country, with the help of the U.N., is attempting to have elections in four months, and officials remain confident that the elections will happen. However, according to a Friday New York Times story, fewer than 100,000 of 4 million potential voters have been registered, fewer than a quarter of the registration centers have opened, and there are no clear candidates or campaigns.
Contributing: The Associated Press
E-mail: jloftin@desnews.com
