21442: (Chamberlain) Haitian ex-rebels challenge U.S. on reviving army (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

     By Joseph Guyler Delva

     PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti, April 20 (Reuters) - Haiti's interim government
will allow many former soldiers who drove out its elected president to
become police, but a rebel leader said on Tuesday his men would instead
revive the disbanded army.
     "We are the Haitian army and we exist," said former army Col.
Remissainthe Ravix, who fought alongside top rebel chiefs Guy Philippe and
Louis Jodel Chamblain during a rebel uprising in February that sent
President Jean-Bertrand Aristide into exile.
     Haitian authorities opened registration on Monday to recruit new
police to fill a security gap that has worsened since the rebellion that
drove out Aristide.
     "The crime rate has increased. It is a fact. But the problem is that
the police don't have enough numbers," Justice Minister Bernard Gousse
said.
     Haiti had about 3,500 policemen before the uprising. But many fled the
country or abandoned their positions in fear of their lives during the
revolt. Many others have been fired by the new interim authorities.
     Gousse said 20,000 officers would be needed to police Haiti, which now
has just 2,000 police to secure 8 million people.
     Haiti's military overthrew Aristide, the Caribbean nation's first
democratically elected president, shortly after he took office in 1991.
Aristide disbanded the army after he was returned to power by a U.S.-led
military invasion in 1994.
     He began serving a second five-year term in 2001 but was driven into
exile on Feb. 29 amid the bloody uprising led by armed rebels, many of them
former soldiers. More than 200 people were killed during the uprising.
     The United States, which pressured Aristide to step down in February,
has urged Haiti not to restore its army, which has a long history of
launching coups.
     "Haiti does not need an army now. What the Haitian people need is a
professional, confident and equipped police force, " U.S. Secretary of
State Colin Powell said during a visit to Haiti on April 5.
     Ravix, who claims to command 1,681 former soldiers, told Reuters the
United States has no right to interfere "with our efforts to take back
possession of our barracks."
     "Mr. Powell said Haiti does not need an army, but the U.S. has one.
Why?" he said.
     U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said in a report to the Security
Council on Tuesday that stabilizing Haiti will require a U.N. peacekeeping
mission of more than 8,000 troops and civilian police over the next two
years.
     Ravix said Aristide's decision to dismantle the army was
unconstitutional and called on interim authorities to pay the former
soldiers 10 years' back salary.
     "They have to pay us because the army never ceased to exist," said
Ravix, who fought alongside top rebel chiefs Guy Philippe and Louis Jodel
Chamblain.
     Surrounded by heavily armed men in camouflage uniform, Ravix said none
of his men will join the police.
     "We are a constitutional force just like them," he said.
     The interim government said it would let rebel ex-soldiers into the
police force, but would screen them to determine if they had been involved
in serious human rights abuses.
     Thousands of youngsters queued in front of the police academy's gate
all day Monday and Tuesday trying to register to fill 800 open slots.
     Some said they want to become police officers to serve their country,
while others said they had no employment alternative.
     "I just want to get a job," said Paul Gelin, 24, who had been at the
gate of the academy since 4 a.m. on Tuesday but could not get in.
     Haiti is tentatively scheduled to hold elections in 2005. The interim
government has said it will leave it up to the next government to decide
whether to restore the army.