HAITI: TENSIONS HIGH AS POLICE AND UN PEACEKEEPERS CLASH WITH FORMER SOLDIERS FROM HAITI'S DISBANDED ARMY

Record ID: 350394

  • Title: HAITI: TENSIONS HIGH AS POLICE AND UN PEACEKEEPERS CLASH WITH FORMER SOLDIERS FROM HAITI'S DISBANDED ARMY
  • Date: 10th February 2005
  • Summary: (BN4) PETION-VILLE, HAITI (FEBRUARY 10, 2005) (REUTERS) 1. SLV UN TANKS ON STREET 0.03 2. SLV MAN BEING CHECKED AT UN ROADBLOCK BY BRAZILIAN PEACEKEEPERS 0.06 3. SV PEACEKEEPER SEARCHING CAR 0.09 4. SLV CAR DRIVER AND PASSENGER AGAINST WALL 0.12 5. SLV UN PEACEKEEPER RUNNING AS SHOTS ARE HEARD 0.15 6. SLV UN PEACEKEE
  • Embargoed: 25th February 2005 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Haiti
  • Country: Haiti
  • Reuters ID: LVABXT5ESM81QMJ66OIP6IJN3KEP
  • Story Text: Tensions high as police and UN peacekeepers clash
    with former soldiers from Haiti's disbanded army.




    Tension were high in a suburb of Haiti's capital on
    Thursday (February 10, 2005) as police and UN peacekeepers
    engaged in a firefight with an unknown number of renegade
    former soldiers from Haiti's disbanded army.

    At three dozen heavily armed police from Haiti's
    special units fired on an apartment building they said was
    being used as a make-shift base by a group of men who were
    members of the Haitian Armed Forces that was disbanded ten
    years ago.

    Traffic was halted on surrounding roads as automatic
    gunfire rang out and soldiers and police carrying heavy
    weapons moved in and out of position. UN peacekeepers
    checked passing cars for weapons and escaped ex-soldiers.

    Police were after the leader of the former soldiers,
    ex-Sgt. Remissainthe Ravix. Ravix and many of his men
    participated in the overthrow of former President
    Jean-Bertrand Aristide one year ago. Since then have
    refused to put down their guns, claiming they are a legal
    entity and that they should be rewarded for their
    assistance in ousting Aristide.

    The Haitian government estimates there are 200 to 300
    former soldiers located in the capital and in cities and
    towns around the country.

    Police said they engaged Ravix's headquarters -
    located in an apartment building in a residential area,
    because they wanted to arrest him and his followers, in
    part because they are suspected in the murder of four
    police officers early on Feb. 7.

    Several armoured personnel carriers and at least three
    dozen mostly Brazilian UN peacekeepers assisted police
    after the operation began.

    The shooting left one child dead and three people
    injured, radio journalists reported. It is unknown if the
    victims were all passersby. Radios also reported that
    police arrested three people, but their identities were
    unknown. The UN peacekeepers said they were unaware of the
    shooting victims and the arrests, since they arrived at the
    scene after the clash started.

    Haitian police at the scene would not speak to the
    media.

    The head of the UN peacekeeping mission which has about
    7,400 soldiers and police officers, mostly from Latin
    America, was on the scene.

    "We weren't even informed ahead of time," said UN
    Commander, Brazilian General Augusto Heleno Ribeiro
    Pereira." They called us after the operation started. Now
    we are going to pull our troops out because we wanted to
    negotiate but the police have decided to smash everything
    in the building, and that is not in our mandate."
    After the UN tanks and troops left, police entered the
    building and seized guns, chargers, a helmet, boots and a
    pile of second-hand army fatigues. Among the items seized
    were a number of photos and a painting of Ravix which Ravix
    had hung on the walls of his office.

    Aristide disbanded the armed forces - which for 50
    years was infamous for its coups d'etat and its brutality -
    in 1995 following a three-year coup against him which left
    an estimated 3,000 to 5,000 people dead. He was overthrown
    on Sept. 30, 1991, after only seven months in office. He
    was elected to a second term in 1999 and was chased from
    power by a broad civilian movement joined in its last month
    by an armed uprising of former policemen and soldiers.

    One of the UN peacekeeping mission's chief mandates is
    disarmament. The UN, Organization of American States and
    the Haitian government are planning nation-wide elections
    for October.


  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2015. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
  • Usage Terms/Restrictions: None
Register