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23370" Ives: This Week in Haiti 22:29 9/29/04 (fwd)
"This Week in Haiti" is the English section of HAITI PROGRES
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HAITI PROGRES
"Le journal qui offre une alternative"
* THIS WEEK IN HAITI *
September 29 - October 5, 2004
Vol. 22, No. 29
THE HAITIAN ARMY PLOTS ITS RETURN
"There is no honor among thieves," goes the saying, and it certainly holds
true for the thieves who stole power from the Haitian people on Feb. 29,
2004.
The government of de facto Prime Minister Gérard Latortue is now locked in
an increasingly bitter and deadly power struggle with the former Haitian
soldiers who made up most of the few hundred "rebels" that overran northern
cities in the days before U.S. Marines kidnapped President Jean-Bertrand
Aristide to consummate the coup.
The ex-soldiers have taken over police stations as well as public and
private buildings around Haiti to reestablish Haitian army casernes, or
barracks. They are demanding ten years back-pay (Aristide disbanded the Army
in 1995) and have flouted a ballyhooed Sep. 15 deadline the government set
for illegal arms to be laid down (see Haïti Progrès, Vol. 22, No. 20,
7/28/2004).
Last month, the de facto government formed three different commissions to
resolve the dispute with the ex-soldiers, including a "presidential
commission" composed of government officials and lawyers representing the
ex-soldiers.
But this month relations between the parties have worsened after Haitian
police killed three former soldiers in two separate incidents.
Heavily armed former soldiers began taking over police stations around
Haiti, beginning with the one in Petit Goâve on Aug. 31. In Jacmel, they
occupied the locale of Radio Timoun, a pro-Aristide radio station. In Gonaïv
es, they moved into a part of the City Hall until they made a deal with the
Artibonite departmental delegate and were set up in a highschool. In St.
Marc, early on Sep. 6, one hundred former soldiers entered town and started
make their base in the former Jean Kenold hospital. But within hours,
Haitian policemen backed by troops of the MINUSTAH (United Nations Mission
for the Stabilization of Haiti) forced them to leave the site.
On Sep. 6, Jean Bruce Myrthil, the Haitian National Police (PNH) spokesman,
held a press conference. "The National Police and the MINUSTAH have received
orders to take back the police stations occupied by the soldiers," he said.
"Already, the institution is in a state of alert, vacations and leaves of
absence are suspended. Now the departmental chiefs must implement the
instructions."
In a futile conciliatory gesture, Myrthil also promised that 1000 former
soldiers would be integrated into the PNH.
However, the next day near the de facto prime minister's residence,
ex-soldiers in a jeep ran a checkpoint at which the police ordered them to
stop. According to the police, the ex-soldiers opened fire, wounding one of
the policemen, who immediately returned fire, killing two ex-soldiers, one
of them named Philippe Franck.
Police chief Fritz Gérald Apollon declared that the policemen were acting in
self-defense. But ex-captain Rémicinthe Ravix, the self-proclaimed chief and
unofficial national spokesman for the former soldiers, called it an
assassination and laid blame on PNH director Léon Charles, de facto Justice
Minister Bernard Gousse, and de facto Prime Minister Gérard Latortue.
The de facto government opened an inquiry into the incident while de facto
Commerce minister Danielle Saint-Lot, president of the presidential
commission, called for dialogue. "It was an unfortunate incident, because
when it happened, I was in the process of laying the groundwork for very
important dialogue," she said. "I imagine that the demobilized soldiers can
understand that the public authority is there precisely to have a state of
law, to reestablish security. This should not be a blockage to the
negotiations process. It will certainly slow them, but according to the
contacts and verbal reports we have, the demobilized solders believe in the
good faith of this commission and trust it."
Events have proved otherwise. In response to the shootings, on Sep. 8, the
former soldiers of Petit Goâve disarmed and arrested four policemen and held
them prisoner for several hours. The same day, in Mirebalais on the Central
Plateau, ex-soldiers attacked the police station, forcing the policemen to
flee. The PNH's specialized Departmental Unit to Maintain Order (UDMO)
counter-attacked and retook the station, leaving one ex-soldier, Jean Hubert
Marcelin, dead.
On Sep. 12 in Gonaïves, night-time gun battles took place between the PNH
and former soldiers, which left one former soldier wounded. "While speaking
of negotiation, [the police] attack us, creating victims in our camp," Ravix
said after the battle. "We will not be the only victims. There will be
victims also on their side. Because, we identified our attackers and noted
that they circulated in vehicles with police force license plates. We will
react."
On Sep. 15, rumors circulated that the demobilized soldiers were ready to
attack the Pétionville police station, where businessman Jean Claude
Louis-Jean was in police custody after being arrested that morning. The PNH'
s heavily armed Company for Intervention and Maintenance of Order (CIMO) and
MINUSTAH troops set up a perimeter around the station that night.
The next day, former "rebel" chief Guy Philippe, the secretary-general of
the newly-formed party Front for National Rebuilding (FRN), said that
Louis-Jean had financially supported the former soldiers' movement but
denied any operation to break him out of jail had been planned. Nonetheless,
he castigated the de facto government as a "tool" of foreigners. "There is a
sector which is working for the occupation of the country and which, without
this situation, not having any legitimacy, could enjoy no advantage," he
said, dubiously playing the nationalist. "And, not being representative,
this sector will not take part in the elections, therefore the only way for
its members to get the reins of the country, is the occupation of the
territory."
On Sep. 18, the "presidential commission" announced that an agreement
between the de facto government and the ex-soldiers had been reached. A
government spokesman said that the parties agreed to settle their
differences through dialogue, that the state's authority would be respected,
and that the ex-soldiers would voluntarily and peacefully relinquish the
buildings they had occupied.
But ex-Capt. Ravix had a different interpretation. "The accord signed
yesterday calls on policemen to limit themselves to their role and for
soldiers to remain in their bases awaiting the setting in place of
negotiations," he said.
The different interpretations are to be expected. The "accord" is very
vague. It also stipulates that "instead of back wages, the demobilized
soldiers will receive from the state a compensatory allowance." This will
also become a bone of contention.
On Sep. 20, commission president St. Lot said the agreement would return the
soldiers to civilian life. But lawyers for the soldiers, Rigaud Duplan and
Déus Jean François, organized a press conference to rebut her statements.
"If the minister made this declaration in good faith, she is mistaken
because it was never a question of reintegrating them into civilian life,"
Duplan said. "We have not accepted this position and neither was this raised
during discussions."
About 20 camouflage-uniformed and heavily armed ex-soldiers, including
Ravix, accompanied Duplan at this press conference. This brazen challenge to
the Sep. 15 disarmament deadline reveals the de facto governments tolerance
of the ex-soldiers. Meanwhile, the police regularly arrest and kill Lavalas
militants accused of having arms.
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