[News] Haiti: Army declared reconstructed by coup leadership

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AHP News - February 18, 2004 (Unofficial)



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Former members of the military Guy Philippe and Louis Jodel Chamblain, who 
are leading the opposition coalition in Gonaïves announce the 
reconstitution of the Haitian Army
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Gonaïves, February 18, 2004-(AHP)- Former member of the military Guy 
Philippe, who recently took over the leadership of the armed opposition in 
Gonaïves together with the leader of the FRAPH terrorist organization, 
announced this Wednesday the reconstitution of the FAd'H (Armed Forces of 
Haiti).

Guy Philippe said that he joined the Platform of the 184 following, 
notably, repeated requests made by opposition supporters along with appeals 
made by media affiliated with the Platform and whose journalists said they 
were threatened.

The Armed Forces of Haiti were dissolved in 1994 with the return from exile 
of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide  who had been overthrown in a bloody 
coup d'état on September 30, 1991.

The FAd'H and FRAPH are responsible for the deaths of more than 5,000 
Haitians between 1991 and 1994.

In a recent interview with the daily newspaper La Presse in Montreal, the 
leader of the opposition political Platform,  André Apaid, declared that he 
was favorable toward the return of the Haitian army.

Guy Philippe, who joined the camp of the 184 Platform Saturday, accompanied 
by FRAPH leader Louis Jodel Chamblain, indicated that his army will 
continue its attacks until the elected authorities are overthrown.

He pressed the international community to exert pressure on President 
Aristide to leave power, otherwise blood will continue to flow, he said.

Three police officers were killed in Hinche and a police station was 
invaded and looted by opposition partisans in  Belladères, following the 
alliance between FRAPH and the Platform with former members of the military.

Prior to the  the elections of December 16, 1990 that brought Jean-Bertrand 
Aristide to power, it had always been the Haitian army that had  granted or 
seized power in Haiti.

Leaders of the opposition Platform which includes private sector 
associations, human rights organizations, and private media organizations 
and others, have until now still refused to condemn the abuses committed by 
their partisans, led by criminal on the run Louis Jodel Chamblain and 
fugitive from prison Jean Tatoune.



AHP February 18, 2004 3:30 PM


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