HAITI: The gangs that control Haiti's largest and most violent slum will give up their weapons and stop fighting a "totalitarian" government if Rene Preval becomes president, a top gang leader said.
Augudson Nicolas (29), known as General Toutou, said the gangs would hand over their guns to a Preval government in a public ceremony, bringing peace to the teeming Cite Soleil slum where UN peacekeepers have been involved in near-daily gunfights in recent months.
Early election returns had MR Preval leading with 61 per cent of the vote in Tuesday's election. If the result holds he will have the majority he needs to avoid a March 19th runoff.
"We are not interested in using weapons any more. The elections have taken place. We are going to have a legitimate government," Nicolas, considered one of the most influential leaders of the gangs, said on Thursday in Cite Soleil, a teeming warren home to more than 300,000 people.
Haiti's disparate armed groups have offered to disarm but failed to carry through in the past. However the UN mission in Haiti - 9,000 soldiers and civilian police - welcomed Nicolas's proposal.
"The whole issue is about getting the guns out of Cite Soleil," UN spokesman David Wimhurst said.
Taming Cite Soleil is seen as essential to ending violence that has plagued Haiti since an armed revolt ousted Jean-Bertrand Aristide, the last elected president in 2004.
A feared explosion of bloodshed around Tuesday's presidential vote failed to materialise. Police and UN officials believe the gangs called a ceasefire to allow a peaceful vote, knowing Mr Preval, a former Aristide protege, had a good chance to win.
Haitian business and civic leaders have criticised UN peacekeepers for failing to control the violence in the sprawling slum.
However Mr Preval has said he does not believe military force is the solution in Cite Soleil. Instead, he says his government would spend on schools and infrastructure.
Nicolas said the gang warfare in Cite Soleil has been a political battle against interim prime minister Gerard Latortue's "illegal" US-backed government, appointed when Aristide was driven into exile.
"I was fighting a totalitarian government. Now it's over," said Nicolas