ARTICLE - SOLDIERS WON'T STAND DOWN

FORMER SOLDIERS HAVE NO INTENTIONS OF STANDING DOWN
(Defend Haiti) -

PORT-AU-PRINCE - The "demobilized" soldiers of the Armed Forces of Haiti (FAd'H), who began occupying old army bases and rearming themselves, informed the public on Monday that they do not intend to decamp.

The resigned Prime Minister, Garry Conille, and the Minister of Interior, Thierry Mayard Paul, had asked them to disarm and return home, and they have not heeded.

In response, some of them visited the International Airport as the Head of State, President Michel Martelly, returned from a February trip to Venezuela, Panama and the Caribbean, to receive orders from the Commander-in-Chief.

In addition, the spokesman of the soldiers, Larrose Aubain, said that his colleagues have already met with competent authorities from the Minsitry of Defense, and will continue to occupy the former bases and train for the remobilization of the army.

On February 8, Senator Youri Latortue (Artibonite/AAA) called on Minister Mayard-Paul, also the Minister of National Defense, to convene with the senate to explain the mobilization of these forces training in the camps of Carrefour and the Central Plateau.

Latortue received a report from Senator Francisco Delacruz (Centre/Alternative), who found military veterans to have restored old bases and have brandished weapons from personal caches.

However, Aubain recalled that the Haitian Constitution recognizes the existence of two forces in the territory: The PNH (Police Nationale d'Haiti) and the army.

The Executive Director of the Platform of Haitian Human Rights Organizations (POHDH) Anthonal Mortimé, on Monday, has once again called on the authorities to take a firm stand against this situation.

"It's not normal that gunmen roam freely in a country under a context marked by increased insecurity particularly in the metropolitan area of Port-au-Prince," Mortimé advised.

A visit from the United Nations Security Council did not damage the efforts of the former military men to establish the national defense force. The civilian head of MINUSTAH, the United Nations peacekeeping force, has also called on the authorities to move from words to deeds, after estimating that these abnormal gunmen are occupying military bases.