24287: (news) Chamberlain: Four slain Haiti police buried, ex-soldiers sought (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

     By Joseph Guyler Delva

     PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti, Feb 16 (Reuters) - Haiti on Wednesday held a
state funeral for four policemen who authorities say were slain by
ex-soldiers linked to fugitive self-styled military leader Remissainthe
Ravix.
     Police said they had arrested one former soldier in connection with
the killings and were offering a reward for the capture of two others
including Ravix himself.
     The officers died on Feb. 6 in Port-au-Prince, where violence between
foes and allies of ex-President Jean-Bertrand Aristide continues to simmer
nearly a year after his ouster.
     Haitian National Police spokeswoman Jessie Coicou told around 200
mourners, "This crime won't go unpunished.
     "The state has the monopoly on violence and the law must prevail," she
said as several police officers broke into tears. Interim Prime Minister
Gerard Latortue attended the church service.
     Coicou said a former soldier identified as Eric Pierre-Louis was
arrested on Sunday in possession of a revolver belonging to one of the dead
policemen.
     He had been trying to sell the weapon, which he received from another
former soldier, Rene Jean Anthony, who reported to Ravix, she said.
     Coicou said the government was offering a $7,000 reward for
information leading to the capture of Ravix and Anthony.
     Ravix, who has taken refuge in a village near Haiti's border with the
Dominican Republic, denied the accusations against his men.
     "I and my men have nothing to do with the killings," Ravix said by
cell phone. "The government is made up of traitors. They praised us when we
took up weapons to get rid of Aristide. Now that they are in power, they
want to get rid of us."
     Previously pitted mainly against street gangs still loyal to
Aristide's Lavalas Family party, the police are now also increasingly
confronting the disbanded soldiers who helped lead the armed revolt that
drove Aristide from power last Feb. 29.
     Latortue once hailed the soldiers and other anti-Aristide gunmen as
"freedom fighters," and this year his government began to pay them some of
the 10-years back pay they demand.
     But relations have frayed over the soldiers' demands for the
re-establishment of the army, which Aristide disbanded a decade ago.