FBI agents were headed to Haiti Wednesday to help investigate the assassination of a former top official in the 1991 military government. The White House called the attack a "brutal act of violence."
Mireille Durocher Bertin, a prominent lawyer, was killed Tuesday in downtown Port-au-Prince when men with machine guns fired on her car, then escaped.Bertin was chief of staff in the military-installed government formed by President Emile Jonassaint after the army overthrew President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. She also advised army leader Lt. Gen. Raoul Cedras and capital police chief Michel Francois.
"We condemn this brutal act of violence," press secretary Mike McCurry said in a statement issued in Atlanta, where Clinton was speaking Wednesday. "The Haitian government has requested our assistance and we are responding by assisting with appropriate law enforcement measures."
A White House official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Aristide briefed U.S. Ambassador Bill Swing on the killing Tuesday. Swing talked to national security adviser Anthony Lake, who briefed Attorney General Janet Reno.
Reno dispatched the FBI team. The team left for Haiti on Tuesday, the official said.
The 8,000-member U.S.-led multinational force turns control over to a 6,000-member U.N. force on Friday. The U.N. force will include about 2,500 U.S. soldiers.
The White House said the killing should not jeopardize U.S. efforts to stabilize democracy in Haiti. "We must not allow this act to deter Haiti from the path of progress," McCurry said.