Thursday, December 01, 2005

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) -- Police rescued unharmed two kidnapped children and a foster child of an American missionary couple during a raid on an apartment in Haiti's capital, officials said Monday.Police said Hannah Lloyd, 3, her brother David, 5, and their Haitian foster sister Miriam Meinvil, 7, were unharmed. They are the children of Pentecostal minister David Lloyd and his wife, Alicia, of Claremore, Oklahoma.The three were abducted after they left school on Friday and rescued the next day, but police only revealed the crime to the public on Monday. Officials did not immediately explain the reason for the delay.Lloyd said in a telephone interview that the children were unharmed. "My little girl is still very scared, though."Police said the kidnapping occurred shortly after Alicia Lloyd picked up the children. Several armed men dressed as police officers in van marked "police" cut them off in downtown Port-au-Prince, seized the children and sped away.Police traced the men to an apartment building in the volatile Delmas neighborhood and raided the property on Saturday, freeing the children and arresting seven suspects, including a former police officer, said Michael Lucius, the head of Haiti's Judicial Police."We operated very fast and no one was hurt," Lucius said.He said police were investigating if the other six suspects were current or former police officers.The children were the latest victims of a surge of kidnappings that have added to insecurity ahead of the first elections since the February 2004 ouster of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. Police reported more than 50 kidnappings in September.Lloyd said someone phoned him asking for a $350,000 ransom for the children's release, but he said he couldn't be sure if it was the captors.He said the captors allowed him to speak with the children by phone several times before they were freed. During one conversation, the children said they were fed a pack of cheese puffs and a soda for dinner.Lloyd, who runs the "Missions in Haiti" charity with his wife, said he wouldn't leave Haiti. The charity helps raise 21 Haitian foster children."It's been a pretty rough year, but we feel this is where God wants us to be, and we will stay with our mission," Lloyd said.Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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