24235: Beckett (asks/news) about Ravix, FAdH and backpay (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Beckett <beckett@uchicago.edu>

I'm somewhat confused. According to the news story posted below, the
police and the interim government are now looking for Ravix, in order
to arrest him. This same story has the UN troops helping in this
search. That should mean it is official.

But, why wasn't Ravix arrested back in the fall, when he illegally took
over Aristide's house? And, I thought that the stories on the
negotiations for 10 years' worth of back-wages had said that Ravix was
one of the people paid by the interim government. (I also thought that
the stories coming out then had placed him in or near Hinche.)

Who is this guy? Why is it only his name that keeps coming up in these
stories? Can someone clarify any of these issues for me? And how is the
interim government dealing with the tricky issue of trying to arrest
some former FAdH while at the same time agreeing to pay back-wages to
others?

Many thanks,
Greg



SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/

February 10, 2005


Haitian police search compound for rebel


By PETER PRENGAMAN
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti -- Police hunting a rebel leader stormed a
compound used by Haiti's disbanded army Thursday, exchanging gunfire
with defenders, officials said. A grade school girl was killed in the
crossfire.

Nearly 200 U.N. peacekeepers surrounded the compound as police firing
assault rifles moved inside to arrest Remissainthe Ravix, a leader of
the rebellion that ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide last year,
said Cmdr. Carlos Chagas Braga, a spokesman for the 7,500-member U.N.
peacekeeping mission.

He said that the U.N. troops did not fire any shots.

Police accuse Ravix of killing four policemen Sunday, while the
interim government has said he is wanted for directing attacks on
several police stations in December. Ravix has denied the accusations.

Police led two people away in handcuffs, but refused to say who they
were. Braga said neither suspect was Ravix.

A young girl was shot and killed in the crossfire, Braga and
witnesses said. Residents said she was shot as she left school about
a block in front of the camp.

Tensions have been building between Haiti's interim government, the
former soldiers who want to keep their weapons until the government
formally reinstates the army, and U.N. troops who don't want the
former soldiers patrolling the country armed.

Aristide disbanded the army in 1995, four years after he was ousted
in a coup. A U.S.-led military intervention restored him to power in
1994. He was forced into exile a second time last year when
ex-soldiers joined rebels in the three-week revolt. Aristide is now
living in South Africa.


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