19430: (Craig) NYT: Under Pressure, Aristide Leaves Haiti (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Dan Craig <hoosier@att.net>


Under Pressure, Aristide Leaves Haiti
February 29, 2004
By TIM WEINER and LYDIA POLGREEN


PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti, Feb. 29 --- President Jean-Bertrand
Aristide left Haiti Sunday at dawn, resigning under intense
pressure from the United States and fleeing to the
neighboring Dominican Republic, according to Haitian and
United States officials.

Mr. Aristide was Haiti's first democratically elected
president in the island?s 200 years of independence. But
his presidency crumbled as armed rebels seized Haiti?s
north this month and Washington adopted their position of
?Aristide must go? this weekend.

The rebels, led by veterans of Haiti?s army, disbanded by
Mr. Aristide, had threatened an attack at the capital
unless the president left power.

Mr. Aristide was a radical Catholic priest when he rose to
prominence in the 1980?s as an opponent of military rule
and political dictatorship in Haiti. He was expelled from
his order for his politics in 1988 and became the leader of
a political coalition seeking democracy. Elected president
overwhelmingly in 1990, he was overthrown in a violent
military coup in 1991 and fled into exile, first to
Venezuela, then the United States.

He was returned to power in 1994 by a military invasion and
occupation led by 20,000 United States soldiers. Haiti?s
constitution barred him from succeeding himself as
president, but he won a second five-year term in 2000.

Over the next three years, his power was eroded as
political corruption in his government and political anger
in the street grew out of control.

Many of his former supporters became his sworn enemies.
With the legislature dissolved, Mr. Aristide ruled,
erratically, by decree. His political base crumbled down to
a dissolute and disgruntled national police force and a
rabble of street gangs in the slums of the capital.

An armed rebellion erupted in Haiti?s north on Feb. 5, and
several hundred of the rebels quickly seized half the
nation and threatened to storm the capital, sparking fear
and havoc.

As recently as July, the foreign policy of the United
States toward Haiti was to let Mr. Aristide serve out his
five-year term. ?The United States accepts President
Aristide as the constitutional president of Haiti for his
term of office ending in 2006,? Brian Dean Curran, then the
United States Ambassador here, said eight months ago.

Things changed. The Bush administration clearly decided in
the past three days, as a senior administration official
said Saturday, that "Aristide must go," and that message
was communicated directly to Mr. Aristide hours before he
left this morning. France, Haiti?s colonial occupier, also
called for the president to step down.

Haitian officials said that after landing in the Dominican
Republic, Mr. Aristide might seek refuge in Morocco, Taiwan
or Panama.

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/02/29/international/americas/29WIRE-HAIT.html?ex=1079060399&ei=1&en=0c41cf273cfae49f
Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company