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Reporters urge Haiti to probe disappearance of photojournalist

Evening view of the Haitian capital Port-au-Prince

Local and foreign reporters in Haiti are urging authorities to investigate the disappearance of Vladjimir Legagneur, a freelance photojournalist who has been missing since last week. Legagneur, 30, left his home in the capital Port-au-Prince on the morning of March 14 to take pictures of living conditions in the impoverished neighborhood of Grand-Ravine, an area that has endured violent clashes between rival gangs in recent years. Legagneur "was going to seek information to show to the people here in Haiti and abroad; he didn't go to do anything wrong," said his wife Florette Guerrier. Guerrier filed a missing person report with the police 48 hours after her husband went missing. The police however, have no information on the case. Guerrier said she wants officials to move on the case "so that we can know what happened because, up to now, I don't know if my husband is dead or alive," she said, in tears. In a statement, the advocacy group Reporters Without Borders urged the authorities "to conduct a thorough investigation" into Legagneur's disappearance. "It is extremely worrying that the police have found no trace of him in the ten days since he went missing," said Emmanuel Colombie, head of the group's Latin America bureau. Legagneur's "suspicious disappearance undermines the right of access to information," read a Friday statement from two groups representing photojournalists.