19606: Bellegarde-Smith: BBC 3/2/04: Aristide accuses America of coup (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: P D Bellegarde-Smith <pbs@csd.uwm.edu>


  Aristide accuses America of coup
Haiti's exiled president Jean-Bertrand Aristide has accused the US of
forcing him out of office in a "coup d'etat".

Mr Aristide was flown out of the country on Sunday as rebels closed in
on the capital Port-au-Prince.

His comments came after the US had strongly denied claims that the
president was kidnapped and forced to leave Haiti by its forces.

As rebels paraded through the capital, Haiti's neighbours voiced concern
at the ousting of an elected leader.

I was told that to avoid bloodshed I'd better leave
Jean-Bertrand Aristide

Mr Aristide, along with his wife and children, arrived in the Central
African Republic on Monday and are expected to remain in the country for
a few days before attempting to move to another destination - thought to
be South Africa - to seek political asylum.

The ousted president told CNN television: "I was told that to avoid
bloodshed I'd better leave."

Crowds numbering thousands in Port-au-Prince greeted the rebels on
Monday with cries of "freedom" and the name of their leader, Guy
Phillipe, as they moved through the city.

But there were reports, too, of reprisals with one reporter spotting
four bodies of people shot in the back of the head with their hands tied
behind their backs.

An advance guard of American marines and French soldiers has arrived at
Port-au-Prince to try to restore order.

The troops are part of an international force authorised by the United
Nations.

'Absurd'

An American friend of the deposed Haitian leader, Randall Robinson, told
CNN that Mr Aristide had told him he had been abducted from his home by
about 20 US soldiers in full battle gear and put on a plane.

US Secretary of State Colin Powell stressed that Mr Aristide had been
accompanied into exile by his own security agents and said such claims
were "absurd".

Officials in the CAR have said the deposed leader is a "free man" in
their country.

MULTINATIONAL FORCE
US Marines
Canadian special forces
French troops
French police
More countries expected to join later

Colin Granderson, the secretary-general of the Caribbean community,
Caricom, told the BBC that its members were very unhappy about the
developments in Haiti - which had come as it tried to negotiate a
power-sharing deal.

Speaking ahead of a Caricom summit on Tuesday in Jamaica, Mr Granderson
said the removal of Mr Aristide had set a dangerous precedent.

Haiti, he added, had already suffered so many coups and it might have
been best to avoid another.

The UN has announced it is sending an assessment team into Haiti within
days to plan its future peacekeeping operations there.

Spokesmen for the advance guard of US Marines and French soldiers now on
the ground reported no resistance to their deployment.

The US has pledged 1,500 to 2,000 troops to serve in the force, which is
expected to number less than 5,000.

Canadian special forces are also at Port-au-Prince airport, where they
have been helping Canadian nationals who wish to leave, and Chile is to
dispatch 120 special force commandos.

Violent past

The BBC's Stephen Gibbs, in Port-au-Prince, says a carnival atmosphere
greeted the rebels' arrival with Mr Philippe, a former army officer,
announcing he wanted to work with the local police force and the
international troops to restore security.

But mingling with the rebel leaders in their hour of triumph was at
least one figure from Haiti's recent violent past, Louis-Jodel Chamblain
- a convicted killer who led an army death squad in Haiti in the early
1990s.

The international human rights agency Amnesty International called on
Monday for Chamblain to be arrested by peacekeepers.

The US also voiced concern, with Mr Powell remarking that "some of these
individuals, [Washington] would not want to see re-enter civil society
in Haiti because of their past records".

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/americas/3524273.stm

Published: 2004/03/02 01:25:07 GMT

© BBC MMIV