SANTO DOMINGO. – An estimated 200 former soldiers occupied former Haiti military buildings in the northern part of that country on Tuesday to demand the reinstatement of the disbanded Army and 14 years of back pay, the news ageny Reuters said, quoting the group's leader and witnesses.

The men took over the buildings in Cap-Haitien, Haiti's second largest city, and in Ouanaminthe, a town near the Dominican border.

Former soldiers and street gangs led a bloody rebellion in 2004 to ouster president Jean-Bertrand Aristide, who fled Haiti for exile in Africa. He disbanded the army in 1995, but former soldiers say that was illegal and have periodically demanded back pay.

"We are mobilized because we want the army back," Milot Laguerre, a former army officer who claimed to be the group's leader told local radio, Reuters said. “The government has to pay our salaries and we want to provide security for the population.”

The men who occupied the Cap-Haitien former army headquarters, now used as government offices, wore military-style uniforms but no weapons were seen, according to radio correspondents at the scene, though reporters said those who took over the army building in Ouanaminthe had pistols and clubs.