19786: (Hermantin) PalmBeachPost:Aristide Estate-Mansion looters leave cash (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: leonie hermantin <lhermantin@hotmail.com>

Posted on Thu, Mar. 04, 2004

Mansion looters leave cash

BY JOHN LANTIGUA

Palm Beach Post


PORT-AU-PRINCE -- Haitians looted the walled estate of President
Jean-Bertrand Aristide earlier this week of much of its contents, but they
left behind stacks of rotting $100 bills and some artifacts of the exiled
leader's life.

When several journalists on Wednesday entered the three-story white house of
some 20 rooms and extensive grounds, what they found left behind were broken
toys, documents, art including various oil portraits of Aristide, mementos
and thousands of books.

Many of the books were written by Aristide, including dozens of copies of
his autobiography, but other titles included Living Faith by former
President Jimmy Carter, Eyewitness to Power, by journalist and CNN
commentator David Gergen, a collection of writings by Booker T. Washington,
several tomes about President John F. Kennedy and a study of the clandestine
operations of the CIA.

Aristide also owned a large photo of the late Robert Kennedy, given to him
by a member of the Kennedy family, according to an inscription.

A local resident who took part in the looting showed a plastic bag
containing the rotted U.S. bills totaling at least several thousand dollars,
which he said came from a safe found behind a false wall in the basement.

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