24478: (news) Chamberlain: Ex-soldiers defiant (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

We'd rather die than disarm, says Haiti's ousted military

By Laura Bonilla


LES CAYES, March 10 (AFP): "I'd prefer to die in prison than disarm!" cried
former Sergeant Jean Denis, who lost his army job in 1995 when
then-president Jean Bertrand Aristide disbanded Haiti's armed forces.

"I'm a military man, I'm a military man in my country. A military man is a
military man until he dies," said Denis.

Some 20 former members of the Haitian forces -- known by the acronym FADH
-- gathered recently at abandoned barracks at Les Cayes, a port in
southeast Haiti. Dressed in old camouflage uniforms, US army fatigues, or a
simple T-shirt and jeans, the group meets often to play cards and talk.

At the barracks they keep their old weapons, including an M-1 rifle, a .22
pistol and a grenade launcher.

Haiti's army took part in human rights abuses and a number of military
coups during the country's history, including Aristide's ouster in 1991.

The government knows of 2,800 former armed forces members throughout the
country. Hundreds more claim they belonged to the military, but are not
registered.

Former soldiers control several areas in Haiti's interior, living alongside
troops from the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH).

The former soldiers insist they are a legal entity since the Constitution
still recognizes them.

"Aristide's decision (to eliminate FADH) is illegal and arbitrary," claims
Denis, one of the thousands calling on the interim government of Prime
Minister Gerard Latortue to pay them nearly 11 years in back wages and to
reactivate the force.

When former soldiers took control of Aristide's house in Port-au-Prince for
two days in December, the government agreed to pay them three quotas of a
thousand dollars each without a demand they disarm.

"If the government wants (us to disarm), they will have to compensate my
wife, my mother, my father, my 10 children, my brothers and sisters, my
aunt, uncle and others," adds Denis, speaking from barracks that has just
one telephone, a music system and a broken television.

The honeymoon between the ex-soldiers and Latortue, who called them
"freedom fighters" for their role in Aristide's ouster a year ago, is now
at an end.

Both in Les Cayes and in Gonaives, few of the former soldiers received
their first payment. The second payment was canceled due to a lack of
funds, peacekeepers from both cities said.

"Until now, the government has done nothing for us," says Arnold Calixte,
bedecked with jewelry, who wears the inscription 'FADH' on his white shirt.
"So far they've given us nothing."

The government "does not want peace, it prefers war to keep itself in
power," adds Denis, grabbing a fistful of old stained papers, insisting
they contain the names of the military who are owed.

But according to the government, many of those demanding payment were not
members of the military at the moment it was disbanded. Those include its
proclaimed chief, Ravix Remissainthe, expelled from the Haitian army in
1993 for drug trafficking and suspected of killing four police on February
6.

Remissainthe has some 28,000 dollars on his head.

For the security of the country, the government "must confront and
contribute to the issue of disarmament, reintegration and remobilization"
of the Haitian Armed Forces, says Canadian David Beer, head of the UN
civilian police body of more than 1,300 currently in Haiti.

Latortue's government, however, says the decision to reactivate FADH is up
to the government that wins the elections later this year.