Haitian Cabinet studies ways to disarm gunmen

[seemslikeadream]

AP , PORT-AU-PRINCE, HAITI
Friday, Mar 26, 2004,Page 6
Haiti's new Cabinet met for the first time Wednesday to discuss myriad woes including the urgent need to disarm gunmen in the traumatized nation where rebels, street gangs and escaped convicts terrorize much of the land despite the presence of hundreds of US-led peacekeepers.

Haitian police officers are among those accused of fueling the turmoil, with a report Wednesday that five officers have been detained on suspicion of killing five supporters of ousted president Jean-Bertrand Aristide's party.

According to the National Coalition for Haitian Rights, relatives of the victims, aged 17 to 24, said the officers rounded up and executed the men over the weekend. It said the officers were detained Monday but no charges had been filed.

US Marine Major Richard Crusan confirmed the five were detained.

Police were accused of brutalizing opponents of Aristide, who fled the country Feb. 29 as a three-week popular rebellion neared Port-au-Prince, the capital. Scores of police were among more than 300 people killed, and hundreds fled before the rebels, who torched police stations and freed thousands of convicts.


http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/world/archives/2004/03/26/2003107811

[seemslikeadream]

1. I don't think these guys are going to give up their guns/

Haitian National Revolutionary Liberation Front Commander-in-Chief, Guy Philippe, hugs other soldiers from the Front in Cap-Haitien, Haiti as they celebrate after their assault and capture of Haiti's second-largest city on February 22, 2004. (Reuters/Daniel Morel).

[seemslikeadream]

2. Beyond Port-au-Prince: Haiti news round-up

." Later the same day, rebel leader, Butuer Metayer, (brother of Amiot), who Latortue had earlier hailed as one of the "freedom fighters", told the Associated Press, "Our plan is to keep working with the government, (but) if the government cannot work with us, we will overthrow it."

"What is alarming indeed is that rather than trying to reconcile the conflicting parties ... this government seems to be moving in exactly the opposite direction, making alliances with known criminals. The veil has been removed. What I see happening is the return to the unfinished agenda of 1991."

On 13 March, two men were shot dead by members of Guy Philippe's entourage in the village of Vialet. Guy Philippe, the military leader of the armed insurgents,

These men are led by Ti
Nènè who had led an armed opposition group which briefly took control of the town in early February.



Meanwhile, in Port-au-Prince, the Haiti Press Network reported that the bodies of six young men were found in the streets of the Cité Militaire district of Delmas, on the morning of 21 March. According to eye-witnesses, the victims had been shot dead by police officers. An Associated Press photographer found three of the dead in a private morgue in La Saline, and took pictures, showing they had bags over their heads and hands tied behind their backs. On 15 March, Radio Caraïbes reported that the Lavalas Family mayor of Gonaïves, Taupa Moïse, had been kidnapped from a house in Port-au-Prince. The kidnappers demanded a US$100,000 ransom.


public executions carried out by the irregular armed force that controls the city of Les Cayes.

"There is no trial," Byrs said.

Jean-Baptiste and his men disarmed the official police officers and installed their own 'police force' under a new commander, a former soldier called Philippe.

Fort Liberté, the department capital, is the hands of escaped convicts.

They said the people had been executed, tied to cement blocks and metal pieces, and then thrown into the sea. Now decomposed, the bodies has risen to the surface. In an Associated Press (AP) report dated 23 March, a resident named as Job Denis said, "The fishermen come in and say all they've seen are bodies."

http://www.oneworld.net/article/view/82594/1/

[bemildred]

3. We need to send Noriega and Reich down to talk it over with these guys.

Condosleeza can brief them for the trip.

But seriously, what are we going to do about this mess?
I suppose we could cut off their supply of bullets and
wait for them to run out.