PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (defend.ht) – The Superior Council of National Security (CSPN) expressed satisfaction with the May 18th dislodging of armed men and women claiming to be former and aspiring soldiers of the Armed Forces of Haiti. The former Commander of the Liberation Army, Guy Philippe, denounced the operation for having taken place on May 18, Haitian Flag Day in concert with UN peacekeepers.

There was not much resistance and according to Le Nouvelliste, the police waited for the right moment to initiate the operation.

It was on May 18th, the 209th anniversary of the Haitian flag that the armed civilians claiming the old army and aspiring to be a part of the promised new army were parading the streets. The National Police took the opportunity to stop their movementwith the assistance of the United Nations peacekeeping force.

There were 54 arrests including two Americans who were helping the ex-servicemen were arrested. Firearms were seized and documents were confiscated.

“The police will soon be able to know the source of funding sources for these people in military uniforms. At their headquarters in the town of Lamentin in Carrefour, they exchanged some shots with police before fleeing. There have been no loss of lives on both sides, ” said a police source to Le Nouvelliste.

53 of the arrested men were heard on Monday by the Director of Public Prosecutions. Conspiracy, conspiracy against the security of the state are, among the charges against them. Justice is looking for others who have in their possession of illegal firearms.

According to a senior officer of the HNP, these men and women who claimed FAD’H were not as many guns as they let him believe. They used a lot of imitation firearms. However, they had found somewhere a funding source to feed, clothe and train recruits.

The state authority is restored, according to Reginald Delva. Everything was fine until the gunmen who paraded in the capital had decided to head to the National Palace, noted the Secretary of State for Public Safety. According to Reginald Delva, these men in fatigues are handled by foreign journalists looking for sensational images. The journalists, in a few seconds, wanted to take pictures of former soldiers in the palace courtyard on the National Day of May 18 with the background of the ruins of the National Palace. Mr. Delva revealed that believes that these images would go to circumnavigate the world.

Informed of this project, the HNP officers aided by peacekeepers have established a security cordon to prevent the self-proclaimed former soldiers to reach their destination, he said.

“Serious incidents were recorded in the clashes between the so-called former military and law enforcement officers who were pelted with stones. The windshields of cars parked in the vicinity of the palace were broken,” lamented Reginald Delva who welcomed the response of the police and MINUSTAH officers who forced these individuals to turn back.

“These foreigners from the State of Massachusetts and that of Ohio in the United States fed the ex-military material. They have at their disposal two cars in order to facilitate transportation the Day of the Flag,” said Mr. Delva, adding that contacts were established with the American ambassador to put a board of lawyers available to these Americans.

Covert operations conducted in the camps occupied by these “old soldiers” in the metropolitan area have revealed a lot of practices that have nothing to do with their demands, denounced the secretary of state.

“They were charging young people in exchange for their integration. They teach them to make Molotov cocktails and ransomed the displaced earthquake of January 12, 2010 who lived with them at Camp Bon Repos. Sometimes they even beat up children to find money,” charged Delva.

For now, the major camps in Carrefour, in Cap-Haitien, in Bon Repos and in the Central Plateau are controlled by law enforcement. A strategic retreat, according to men in camouflage! They were surprised by the attack of the HNP, told the Nouvelliste, Monday, one of the leaders of armed civilians in the north, Raymond Cherenfant.

According to other movement leaders, abandoned camps are part of a tactical retreat in order to continue the struggle for remobilization FAd’H. According to former Sergeant Joseph Jean-Baptiste, one of the spokesmen of the movement, his soldiers retreated to give some time to power up to advance their case. He stressed that the former military had no intention of abandoning their struggle for remobilization of the army. He announced that strategies are being considered to force the authorities to follow their movement.

Guy Philippe Denounces the Dislodging

The former commander of the “Liberation Army” in 2004, Guy Philippe, on Tuesday denounced on Radio Magik 9 the attack of the security forces for having taken place on May 18.

“The attack could have been done on another day, not May 18, when recalling the establishment of our two-colors”, protested the leader of the Front for National Reconstruction (FRN).

Philippe points to officials of MINUSTAH which he said had deliberately planned the attack on the Day of the Flag solely to humiliate the Haitian people. This is not the first time they have adopted this kind of strategy, noted Guy Philippe, very bitter against PNH officials, which he says have agreed to do the bidding of the UN peacekeepers.

For several days, information about the planning of the operation to expel civilians armed camps were circulating in the capital. I was aware of these rumors too, but I wanted to see how far could the cunning of the authorities go, said the former senior member of the PNH, which had even advised the alleged former soldiers to walk the streets and free camps on May 18 to see the reaction of the authorities.

Responsible for negotiating on behalf of these men who claimed to be former soliders, Guy Philippe revealed that many strides had been made in the discussions. The former soldiers are demanding that remobilization of the Armed Forces of Haiti that was dissolved illegally by former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide in 1995, under pressure from many embassies in Haiti and the passive eye of advocacy organizations for human rights , the political class and civil society, recalled Guy Phillipe.

Philippe dismissed the charges against the armed civilians arrested on Friday at Place Jeremie, which were heard by the Government Commissioner in Port-au-Prince on Monday.

How can you accuse them of plotting against the state security men who were always in a meeting with secretaries of state and ministers, asked Guy Philippe. It was even more critical to the charge of sexual immorality brought against armed civilians. The judicial authorities have relied on the fact that condoms were found in the camps occupied by the former military to carry this charge. Condoms can be found in the embassies, offices of public administration, said Philippe before denouncing the wacky character of this charge. “Being a soldier does not take away the right to have sex or protect themselves in these antics.”

After having auditioned the Government Commissioner in Port-au-Prince, Jean Renel Senatus, accused armed civilians arrested on May 18 of conspiracy, conspiracy against the state security, illegal possession of weapons firearms and sexual promiscuity.