PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) - Eight former Haitian soldiers detained for illegal weapons possession vowed yesterday to remain at a police station until their confiscated arms are returned to them.

Rebel commander Joseph Jean-Baptiste, who helped launch the revolt that ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide nearly three months ago, is among the eight remaining at a police station in Port-au-Prince.

"I'll stay here as long as it takes," Jean-Baptiste said. "I will wait for my arms to be given back."

The eight men, all from Haiti's Central Plateau, were detained in the capital Tuesday, the birthday of the Caribbean nation's flag. They had gathered for a ceremony in camouflage uniforms, bearing eight assault rifles and three pistols, Justice Minister Bernard Gousse said.

Festivities were marred by violence when riot police fired tear gas and warning shots to disperse demonstrators calling for Aristide's return. At least one man was killed.

Citizens are not allowed to carry assault weapons and the pistols carried by those in custody were not licenced, Gousse said. He said the police gave the men the option of licencing the pistols but they refused.

Authorities told the men that they were free to leave without their guns under the government's disarmament plan, the justice minister said.

Jean-Baptiste, however, said the current government would not be in power were it not for the rebels' arms.

"The director general of the police said we have no right to carry those arms, but it was those arms that put the director general in power," he said.

Aristide disbanded the Haitian army after he was first ousted in a 1991 coup and many former soldiers participated in the most recent uprising.

The former president claims he was forced to leave his homeland February 29 by the United States, a claim that US officials deny. When Aristide fled Haiti, he flew to the Central African Republic but left two weeks later to spend time with his wife and two daughters in Jamaica.

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