21640: Esser: Ravix stepping out of line (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: D. Esser torx@joimail.com

Club Haitti
http://www.telepark.de/clubhaiti/start.html

April 30, 2004

Ravix stepping out of line 

Haiti's Latortue government will allow many former soldiers who drove
out its elected president to become police, but a rebel leader said
his men would revive the disbanded army instead. While Guy Philippe
and Louis Jodel Chamblain seem to play by the U.S. state departments
rules, Ravix is still stepping out of line. "We are the Haitian army
and we exist," said ex-army Col. Remissainthe Ravix, who fought
alongside rebel chiefs Guy Philippe and Louis Jodel Chamblain during
an uprising in February that sent President Jean-Bertrand Aristide
into exile. Ravix, who claims to command 1,681 former soldiers, told
Reuters that none of his men would join the police. "We are a
constitutional force just like them," he said, surrounded by heavily
armed men in camouflage uniforms. He protested angrily when U.S.
Marines arrested five of his men for carrying weapons, their first
direct action in a two-month peace mission against the gunmen who
helped overthrow President Jean Bertrand Aristide. Marine spokesman
Lieutenant Colonel Dave Lapan said the men were carrying automatic
weapons in a vehicle stopped near the Port-au-Prince airport. "Those
individuals had no right to carry those weapons, so we took them,"
said Lapan. "We will hand them over to the police." Ravix said his
men were on their way to the central town of Hinche to "restore
order. We are the Haitian army. U.S. Marines have no right to
confiscate our weapons," he told local radio. [Source: Reuters]
.