Legislative
Haiti: Armed men in uniform besiege the Chamber of Deputies
- Wednesday, April 18, 2012 4:42 PM
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (defend.ht)- Tuesday, April 12, armed men in uniform besieged the Chamber of Deputies urging parliamentarians to ratify the appointment of Laurent Lamothe as Prime Minister. Furious, the chairman Levaillant Louis-Jeune suspended the meeting and demanded Executive to take measures against those he described as "armed bandits".
President of the Lower House, Levaillant Louis-Jeune, decided Tuesday afternoon to suspend for a period of 24 hours the day's session in protest against the attempt to break into the Parliament of several uniformed and armed individuals urging to ratify the Prime Minister designate, Laurent Lamothe.
Reacting strongly to this intrusion, the Member denounced the presence of "armed bandits" having disrupted the functioning of the parliamentary institution by requiring the government to decide on this.
"It's really worrying that gunmen besieged the Parliament", stated angry Congressman Louis-Jeune who, with his colleagues, had just formed a commission to analyze the case of Prime Minister-designate.
Congressman Arnel Belizaire, a former member of the former Armed Forces of Haiti, had earlier unsuccessfully tried to convince his colleagues to voluntarily accept the delegation of soldiers who said they wanted to inform elected officials that the power was planning to launch an attack against the remobilized military.
The session was postponed until Wednesday before the unwelcome visitors, arrived in camouflage on vehicles, decided to walk away.
This is the first such incident recorded in the Haitian Parliament since the resurgence in recent months in several parts of the country of groups of armed individuals, including young people, claiming to be soldiers of a new armed force in Haiti.
Despite repeated denunciations of various sectors of the population, these armed men continue to occupy Port-au-Prince and in the provinces of the former military sites and government and never miss an opportunity to parade in streets.
President Michel Martelly pledged to restore the military, but without the financial support of the international community to carry forward his plan to create a new army.
