PORT-AU-PRINCE – A group of former rebels, who helped oust Haiti’s president in February, on Tuesday denounced a government plan to disarm them and threatened to take up their weapons again.
Many of the rebels, who overran Haiti in a bloody revolt that forced then-president Jean-Bertrand Aristide into exile, are former soldiers. They want Haiti’s disbanded army recreated.”The government cannot disarm the military that we are.We are combatants; we know how to fight; we have fought Aristide, and we’ll fight again if necessary,” former Col. Remissainthe Ravix told Reuters on Tuesday.He claimed to lead a group of nearly 2 000 former soldiers.”If they think they can confiscate our weapons, They can try it, but they’d better watch out,” Ravix said.Treatment of the rebels has been a delicate matter for Haiti’s interim government and a United Nations peacekeeping force sent to the troubled Caribbean country in the aftermath of the February rebellion, in which more than 200 people were killed.The rebels easily overran Haiti’s feeble national police force, which the government is trying to rebuild.Rebel leaders said their fighters would lay down arms shortly after Aristide left the country on Feb. 29.But they have, for the most part, kept their weapons and no serious effort has been made to disarm them.- Nampa-ReutersThey want Haiti’s disbanded army recreated.”The government cannot disarm the military that we are.We are combatants; we know how to fight; we have fought Aristide, and we’ll fight again if necessary,” former Col. Remissainthe Ravix told Reuters on Tuesday.He claimed to lead a group of nearly 2 000 former soldiers.”If they think they can confiscate our weapons, They can try it, but they’d better watch out,” Ravix said.Treatment of the rebels has been a delicate matter for Haiti’s interim government and a United Nations peacekeeping force sent to the troubled Caribbean country in the aftermath of the February rebellion, in which more than 200 people were killed.The rebels easily overran Haiti’s feeble national police force, which the government is trying to rebuild.Rebel leaders said their fighters would lay down arms shortly after Aristide left the country on Feb. 29.But they have, for the most part, kept their weapons and no serious effort has been made to disarm them.- Nampa-Reuters
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