31 August - - Former soldiers who helped overthrow Haiti's government patrolled the streets of a town they took over to back demands for a new Haitian Army, local media reported. The ex-soldiers, who formed the backbone of a rebel force that drove then-President Aristide into exile on February 29, chased police from the southern town of Petit-Goâve on Saturday. In camouflage military uniforms, they spread into the streets on Tuesday trying to win the confidence of the people.

Haiti's interim prime minister, Gérard Latortue, sent a delegation to negotiate with the ex-rebels. But the officials were turned away by rock-throwing supporters of the soldiers. Rebel leaders had warned Latortue weeks ago to expect trouble if his government did not reinstate Haiti's army, which was disbanded by Aristide in the mid-1990s. The ex-soldiers also say the government owes them 10 years of back pay.

Rémissainthe Ravix, the leader of the former soldiers, said he is prepared to send a delegation to negotiate with the government but his men would not compromise on issues such recreating the army and paying back salaries. Many residents of Petit- Goâve seemed to welcome the former soldiers, shouting "Down with the police, long live the army," as they attacked the government delegation.

Some Aristide supporters, however, fled Petit-Goâve in fear for their lives after the rebel takeover. "It is incredibly tough for our militants, who are the principal targets for those criminals," said Sidney Claudy, a leader of Aristide's Lavalas Family party in Port-au-Prince. "We have at least eight militants who escaped from Petit-Goâve who are in hiding." (Reuters)

31 August - More than one thousand supporters of the deposed Lavalas regime took to the streets of the Haitian capital today. Aristide loyalists - among them a large number of youth - marched along many Port-au-Prince streets. (HPN)

30 August - A gang chased a French minister out of the Cité Soleil slum under gunfire on Monday. One French gendarme was wounded and a French diplomatic source said he saw at least one person killed in the attack. The French diplomatic source said the country's junior foreign minister, Renaud Muselier, had to be bustled out of Cité Soleil in Port-au-Prince after his entourage was attacked by rock-throwing youths. When Haitian police fired into the air, gang members pulled out shotguns, pistols and other weapons and shot at the visitors, who had been planning to visit a hospital in the slum that still seethes with anger over Aristide's departure. "We are very surprised that we came under attack when we went to help the hospital," said the source, who asked not to be identified. (Reuters)

30 August - Ex-soldiers from the army that President Aristide disbanded in 1995 have attacked a police station in Petit-Goâve, 40 miles south of the capital and proclaimed themselves in charge of security. A contingent of Brazilian-led UN troops, backed by armoured cars and helicopters, were sent on Sunday to regain control but withdrew without challenging the former soldiers, who witnesses said numbered around 150. "We are not afraid of UN troops. We are the Haitian military, we are trained to fight wars. They'll probably kill us, but we'll fight," their leader, former army Col. Rémissainthe Ravix, told Reuters by telephone. The former soldiers cleared the police station of the white and blue colors of the Haitian national police and repainted it yellow, the colour of the defunct army. Former army Sgt. Devil Prophete told Haitian radio ex-soldiers had also taken over a pro-Aristide radio station in the southern town of Jacmel.

Interim authorities under Prime Minister Gérard Latortue, appointed by a council of elders to run Haiti until new elections in 2005, sent special police units to Petit-Goâve but they took up position well outside town. Latortue urged the former soldiers to negotiate, but he also indicated that demands for re-establishment of the army might not be met. "We want to discuss and negotiate with them, but we also want to tell them the interim government doesn't have the mandate nor the means to re-form the army," Latortue said.

The interim government has set a deadline of September 15 for all groups holding illegal weapons to disarm. But Ravix said the authorities had no moral or legal authority to confiscate his men's weapons. "If our weapons are illegal, then the government is also illegal because it came to power thanks to those weapons," he said. (Reuters)

27 August - Around 150 demobilised soldiers began occupying the main police station in Petit-Goâve on Friday. They are patrolling the town day and night, and according to their leader, the former captain, Ravix Rémissaint, they seem to enjoy the support of a good part of the local population for whom they say they provide security. A dozen or so policemen have fled the town. (Vision2000)

26 August - In Petit-Goâve, where armed civilians continue to act as law and order enforcers, a student says he has been beaten up by these men. The armed goup, which declares itself to be composed of members of the former anti-Lavalas opposition, has been carrying out arrests, even though there are police in the area. (Haiti Press Network)

26 August - Heavily armed former soldiers have demonstrated in Jacmel to demand the re-instatement of the disbanded Army. Their leader, Ravix Rémissaint, who led the demonstration, said that the absence of the Army was "intolerable in this, the year of Haiti's bicentenary." The demobilised soldiers, who are based in the Central Plateau and the North-East, are touring the provinces. At the beginning of the week, they were in Petit-Goâve. (Haiti Press Network)

26 August - A UN peacekeeping mission in Haiti has been hampered by a shortage of promised international troops and police, a UN official said on Thursday. To date, just 2,755 of an authorised 6,700 UN troops are on the job in Haiti, not enough to deploy in the troubled north and east, where armed gangs remain a problem, Assistant Secretary-General Hedi Annabi was quoted as telling a closed-door meeting of the UN Security Council. Only about a third of the 1,622 civilian police officers authorised by the Security Council are now in place, Annabi said, according to council diplomats, nearly three months after the UN mission took over from US forces. In many remote towns, there is still no security presence at all, Annabi said. As a result, there is no rule of law in much of the country, including at many airports, and the political situation remains fragile, Annabi said. (Reuters)

24 August - Former soldiers organised a sit-in on Monday at the Philipe Guerrier square in St. Marc to protest against the way the Minister of Interior, Hérard Abraham, is managing the case of the disbanded Army of Haiti. These former soldiers are demanding that the interim government re-instate the FAD'H, and pay all soldiers 10 years of back pay. (Vision2000)

23 August - A police officer who fought against rebels earlier this year has been missing for two weeks after being abducted at La Plaine, outside the capital, officials said on Monday. Luckner Septembre, a police officer from the Central Plateau region, was one of a few officers who elected to fight rebels seeking to oust President Aristide in February, said Michael Lucius, head of Haiti's judicial police. Two witnesses told authorities that men wearing the uniforms of Haiti's disbanded military abducted him on 9 August. Lucius could not provide further details. (Miami Herald)

18 August - The festive atmosphere surrounding Wednesday’s soccer match here between Brazil and Haiti was marred by several incidents of street violence. Amid a daily landscape of poverty and unrest, some parts of this capital city were festooned with Brazilian flags. Others, however, witnessed confrontations with police officers and attempts to create barricades with burning tyres. The UN peacekeeping force here, known as MINUSTAH, has cordoned off the district of Cite Soleil, a stronghold for supporters of ex-President Aristide who have announced plans to boycott the match.

The presence of several of Brazil’s biggest stars, including Ronaldo and Ronaldinho, has generated excitement in a country where an armed revolt drove Aristide from power in February and unrest and violence has continued following his ouster.Organisers of the game, dubbed "Match for Peace," hope it will also serve as a vehicle for urging Haitians to disarm. The match is being sponsored by Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, whose country is also leading the UN peacekeeping force.

The Brazilian national team has been practicing in the neighbouring Dominican Republic and is scheduled to arrive in Haiti two hours before the start of the match. Officials said the players will travel to Sylvio Catar stadium, which holds about 15,000 people, in armored personnel carriers and leave immediately after the match is over. All of the tickets have been sold despite the fact the cheapest seat costs 400 gourdes (about $11), a huge sum in a country where most people earn an average of $1 a day. (EFE)

17 August - A former death squad leader, Louis Jodel Chamblain, who led rebels who forced ex-President Aristide out of power in February, has been cleared of murder charges after a brief trial. The United States said it was "deeply concerned" over the acquittal of Chamblain and former police official Jackson Joannis in a retrial on murder charges in the 1993 killing of businessman and pro-democracy activist Antoine Izmery. Rights groups also condemned the hasty proceedings as a mockery of justice and said the interim government that took power after Aristide fled had failed to ensure justice.

Chamblain and Joanis had been convicted in absentia of the murder of Izmery, who financed Aristide's campaign to win his first presidency in 1990 elections. Chamblain turned himself in to the police in April after a meeting with Justice Minister Bernard Gousse, police authorities and rebel leaders. Gousse said recently that interim President Boniface Alexandre could pardon Chamblain for "his services to the nation." Under Haitian law those convicted in absentia are entitled to a retrial once they make themselves available to judicial authorities. Joanis escaped from prison during the revolt against Aristide and turned himself in to authorities earlier this month.

Amnesty International condemned the acquittal, saying the interim government "failed to ensure justice and to demonstrate its willingness to tackle impunity effectively," and calling the retrial a "mockery." (Reuters)

15 August - More than 100 former soldiers, some in uniform, and a number heavily armed, have paraded peacefully in Port-au-Prince to remind the authorities of their determination to re-establish the Armed Forces of Haiti and to be paid 10 years of back pay. To the sound of a band, the ex-soldiers marched around the Champ de Mars, stopping at the former Army HQ and the Henri Christophe monument. A number of former officers led the parade, including Ravix Rémissainthe and Faustin Méradieux. An ex-high command officer, former Colonel Irving Méhu, was also seen among those chanting in favour of the Army but he declined to be interviewed.

Ravix Rémissainthe did not mince his words in relation to the head of the National Police Force who has said he wants to disarm the ex-soldiers. In front of the former Army HQ, and after a rendition of the National Anthem, a uniformed ex-officer delivered a message to the authorities demanding back pay and the re-establishment of the institution.

The parade dispersed when the ex-soldiers mounted numerous vehicles and left for what they said was their base in an unspecified location in Port-au-Prince. (Radio Kiskeya)

14 August - Former soldiers in the city of Les Cayes have started to re-occupy the military barracks. They say they can't wait any longer for the government to re-establish the Armed Forces of Haiti, a force they say is still constitutionally intact. The ex-soldiers say that the police are unable to guarantee the security of the population.

Meanwhile, the interim Justice Minister, Bernard Gousse, has admitted that the soldiers were "victims of injustice" at the hands of the Aristide government which suspended their pension fund in 1994. Gousse announced the formation of a commission - comprising a representative of the Prime Minister, the Interior Ministry and the Justice Ministry - to rule on the issue of pension payments to demobilised soldiers. (Haiti Press Network).

11 August - Members of the Haitian National Police force are threatening to strike for a 100% pay increase that they were promised in June. De factopolice chief, Léon Charles, told the policemen that they should be satisfied for the time being with the 30% hike that the government is now offering. Charles said that police officers whostrike will be fired. (Haïti Progrès)

11 August - More than seven months after escaping from the Port-au-Prince National Penitentiary, two of the men charged in the April 2000 killing of prominent journalist Jean Dominique have beenrecaptured. Dymsley Millien was arrested August 1 in Port-au-Prince, and Jeudi-Jean Daniel was captured August 8 in the southern city of Jacmel. Philippe Markington, who is also charged in the murder, is still on the run after escaping from the penitentiary January 1 by breaking through a wall with a group of prisoners that included his co-defendants.

The long-stalled Dominique murder case has been revived somewhat in recent months. In March, authorities arrested former Port-au-Prince deputy mayor Harold Sévère and security agent Rouspide Pétion for alleged involvement in the slaying, The Associated Press reported. And on July 1, the Haitian Supreme Court rejected an appeal by Daniel, Millien and Markington, a decision that allowed proceedings to resume after being blocked in court for almost a year. The ruling opened the door for the nomination of a new examining judge, who will conduct another investigation. (Committee to Protect Journalists)

10 August - Plans to hold high-tech and costly elections in 2005 are at risk unless international donors rapidly provide promised funds, a senior election official has said. Five months after President Aristide was ousted in an armed revolt, Haiti's electoral council needs US$100 million to organise what will be the most expensive ballot in Haiti's 200 years of independence, council member Rosemond Pradel said. "But so far we have not received a penny," Pradel, secretary general of the nine-member body, told Reuters.

Preparations for the election have been torn by infighting, and the electoral council faces the further challenge of trying to organise high-tech voting with digitised identity cards and electronic voting machines in a country that barely has electricity. "To put the electronic system in place will require 12 months," said Pradel, calling on donor nations to speed up the release of funds to help organise the ballot. (Reuters)

3 August - Police swept through the capital on Monday, driving thousands of street merchants from their stands in a new initiative to clean up the city. City officials estimate that 500,000 merchants work unregulated in Port-au-Prince, a city of 2.5 million people, leaving mounds of garbage throughout the capital.

"It’s almost impossible to keep the streets clean with them here," said Gerald Raymond, an adviser to deputy mayor Yannick Mezile, pointing to a curb lined with plastic bottles and other debris. The clean-up plan has created 300 new jobs for the city, but it threatens the livelihoods of the thousands of merchants who survive on selling everything from clothing to chickens. "I don’t know where I’ll go," said Serge Valdre, a 55-year-old hardware merchant who has been selling his wares for more than three decades. "I have nine kids I have to feed," he added, trembling with rage as he packed under the gaze of a mayoral aide and a policeman. (AP)