19522: (hermantin)Miami-Herald- Aristide,Pressures,fear for life led to exit (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: leonie hermantin <lhermantin@hotmail.com>

Posted on Mon, Mar. 01, 2004

ARISTIDE


Pressures, fear for life led to exit

Aristide's fear for his life as rebels neared and international pressure
forced him to give up power and allow the U.S. and France to arrange his
departure.

BY FRANK DAVIES

fdavies@herald.com


WASHINGTON - For President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, international pressure to
step down had an impact, but his quick exit Sunday came down to a simple
truth: He would probably be killed if he stayed.

With armed rebels converging on Port-au-Prince, he was going to lose power
and he could not trust his own security forces. A bloodbath in the capital
became more likely the longer he stayed.

That is the conclusion of U.S. and international diplomats who participated
in and monitored the last two days of talks with Aristide, and one of his
closest advisors.

''For Aristide, it was coming down to leaving on a Learjet or in a body
bag,'' said one participant, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

When Aristide decided to leave, U.S. officials provided security and may
have employed some trickery. Aristide thought he was going to South Africa,
where he has close ties, but instead is likely to be sent to the Central
African Republic, said one U.S. official.

Aristide had long vowed to stay in power until his term ended in 2006. But
in the last 24 hours before he resigned and left Port-au-Prince at 6:15 a.m.
Sunday, he realized his shaky hold on power -- and his own safety -- was
threatened by two developments:

• U.S., French and Canadian officials were all urging him to leave. Any
international support he once had disappeared with the images Saturday of
rioting and looting by pro-Aristide gangs.

''When he called out his thugs into the streets last week to kill and loot,
that was it. The French said enough. We said enough,'' said a former U.S.
official involved in some of the consultations.

• Aristide's life was in danger. A heavily armed National Police unit of 60
men had basically stopped taking his orders, said Ira Kurzban, a Miami
lawyer who represented the Aristide government. The president also feared
that his bodyguards from a San Francisco-based security firm could leave him
at the mercy of rebels, who would probably kill him, senior U.S. officials
say.

Kurzban, who last talked with Aristide by phone Saturday afternoon, said
Aristide seemed fine at the time and that he was surprised by the swift
exit. But he added that Aristide knew his security was becoming more
tenuous.

He said Aristide reported that he had received a warning from U.S. officials
that ``we're not going to do anything to stop these guys, and they are going
to kill you.''

One senior U.S. official said several guards from the Steele Foundation, the
firm Aristide hired for protection, had called the U.S. Embassy asking
whether Marines would come to their rescue if the rebels seized the palace.

The answer: Don't count on it.

By Saturday afternoon, Aristide realized ''a cataclysm would happen and all
the dominoes were cascading around him,'' a U.S. official said.

Senior Bush administration officials say Aristide gave the first signal of
willingness to resign shortly after 8 p.m., in a phone conversation with
U.S. Ambassador James Foley. He asked whether if he departed, ''his personal
security and the security of some of his Cabinet members would be
respected,'' a senior administration official told The Herald.

''Foley, after consulting with Secretary of State Colin Powell, responded
that we thought that the Haitian people were being hurt by this political
impasse and violence, and essentially offered President Aristide a secure
way to leave the country,'' the official said.

Powell worked the phones, making three dozen calls to the foreign ministers
of France, Argentina, Jamaica and Panama and the president of South Africa,
Thabo Mbeki.

Powell ''spent the whole night working this one,'' said one U.S. official.

The international pressure had been building for several days as the French
foreign minister, Dominique de Villepin, and then Powell and the Canadian
minister, Bill Graham, urged Aristide to leave.

Watching pro-Aristide gunmen ''trash the city'' on Friday and Saturday
accelerated the international efforts, one senior official said.

Aristide agreed to issue a call for peace before he left, and insisted that
his Lavalas Family Party have some role in a future government, one
international diplomat said.

Aristide hastily drafted a statement that was read by his prime minister,
Yvon Neptune. ''If tonight my resignation is the decision that can avoid a
bloodbath, I consent to leave with hope there will be life, not death,'' he
wrote.

U.S. officials say Aristide was flown to Africa on a private plane
contracted by U.S. officials. Under a deal arranged by France, Aristide was
told he would fly to South Africa, but he was really bound for the Central
African Republic, U.S. officials said.

By late Sunday, Aristide followers were alleging that Aristide had been
forced to resign at gunpoint or under threat of physical harm.

''By 3 a.m. the White House said that if he doesn't leave they are going to
kidnap him,'' said the Rev. Gerard Jean-Juste, a former Miami priest who
returned to Haiti to work for Aristide.

The Bush administration defended its efforts to force Aristide's departure
as the only way to prevent widespread bloodshed, and said Aristide was
largely to blame for the monthlong rebellion.

Critics accused U.S. officials of favoring the ouster all along. Jesse
Jackson called Aristide's resignation ``an American-assisted coup.''

Two realities were not in dispute Sunday. Powell's Haitian involvement had
come full circle. Ten years ago he helped Aristide return to power by
persuading Haitian military leaders who had ousted Aristide to step down.

And in a country with a long history of political violence, Aristide Sunday
achieved a dubious distinction: the first Haitian president to be deposed
twice.

Herald staff writers Andres Oppenheimer, Juan O. Tamayo and Jacqueline
Charles in Miami and Knight Ridder correspondent Warren P. Strobel in
Washington contributed to this report.

_________________________________________________________________
Take off on a romantic weekend or a family adventure to these great U.S.
locations. http://special.msn.com/local/hotdestinations.armx