UN troops raid Cite Soleil before dawn and residents count dozens of dead

Before dawn on 6 July 2005 MINUSTAH sent troops into Bois Neuf, in Cite Soleil, to take Emmanuel Wilmer – Dread Wilme – a gang leader the mission accused of murder, kidnapping and arson. The operation was commanded by the Brazilian general Augusto Heleno. MINUSTAH said Wilme and four associates were killed. Residents said between twenty-five and forty people died, and investigators later counted roughly 22,000 spent rounds in the neighbourhood, with dead and wounded found inside their own houses. Cite Soleil was the biggest slum in Port-au-Prince and still Lavalas ground. Haitian and American human rights groups called it a massacre.