2 Americans locked up as Haiti gov’t cracks down on pro-army advocates
Source: Associated Press
2 Americans locked up as Haiti gov’t cracks down on pro-army advocates
By Associated Press, Updated: Saturday, May 19, 8:05 PM
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — Haiti moved to crack down on a band of former and would-be soldiers who had been staging protests for more than a year, closing two old military bases they had occupied and locking up dozens of participants in a pro-army march including two Americans.
National police spokesman Gary Desrosiers said the Americans were jailed because they were acting as if they were part of Haiti’s military on Friday during a demonstration to demand that President Michel Martelly restore the country’s armed forces, which was abolished in 1995 because of its abusive record.
The march by hundreds of former soldiers and their young recruits in Haiti’s capital turned violent and 50 participants were detained.
On Saturday, authorities said Americans Zeke Petrie, 39, of Barberton, Ohio; and Steven Shaw, 57, of Massachusetts, were among those in jail. Police say they were driving vehicles with pro-army demonstrators in the march when they were picked up a few blocks from the National Palace.
Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/the_americas/2-americans-locked-up-as-haiti-govt-cracks-down-on-pro-army-advocates/2012/05/19/gIQApR7mbU_story.html
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but they won't. Martelly wants the Army reinstated and has done nothing to disarm those criminals.
Steven Shaw, 57, left, and Zeke Petrie, 39, sit inside a police cell in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Saturday, May 19, 2012. A Haitian National Police official said Shaw and Petrie, both of the U.S., are being held because they were acting as if they were part of the military in a Friday demonstration in Haiti’s capital that turned violent. The two are among people jailed during the march by hundreds of military fatigue-wearing protesters pressing for the return of Haiti’s disbanded army.
Martelly has said he wants to revive the military but that it must be done legally. Under pressure from the U.N., his administration has repeatedly called for the lightly armed men to drop their weapons and clear out of the bases they've taken over since February. But until Friday and Saturday the government had taken little action to disband the group of men.
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