19913: White: Aristide: First Address To Haitian People From Exile (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Randall White <raw@haitiaction.org>


Aristide Details Last Moments In Haiti, Calls For Stop To Bloodshed
In First Address To Haitian People From Exile

Commentary, Jean-Bertrand Aristide,
Pacific News Service, Mar 05, 2004
EDITOR'S NOTE: President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, who left a
tumultuous Haiti under shadowy circumstances Feb. 29, has delivered
an impassioned address "To the Haitian People and the World" by cell
phone to a Haitian journalist in the United States working with a
radio station in Berkeley, CA. In the address recorded early Friday,
Aristide aims his words at Haitians, urging them to "stand in
solidarity and stop the spread of death." He delivers a detailed
account of what he calls his "kidnapping" from a palace surrounded by
heavily armed "white men." He refers to the leader of a massive slave
insurrection of l791, Toussaint L'Ouverture, a national hero who died
in a French prison. Aristide spoke from the Central African Republic
where he has been under a virtual house arrest in the days since he
was delivered from Port-au-Prince on a U.S. plane. The address was
recorded by a Haitian radio producer known to Aristide for some 20
years and broadcast Friday, exclusively on Pacifica Radio's
Flashpoints News Magazine. Six Haitians and Americans who know
Aristide listened Friday to excerpts from the message, delivered in
Creole, and confirmed the voice is that of the president, said the
Flashpoints program host and Pacific News Service contributor, Dennis
Bernstein (e-mail-dbernstein@igc.org), who supplied this translation
exclusively to PNS.


"In overthrowing me, they have uprooted the trunk of the liberty. It
will grow back because its roots are many and deep." In the shadow of
Toussaint L'Ouverture, the genius of the race. I declare in
overthrowing me they have uprooted the trunk of the tree of peace,
but it will grow back because the roots are L'Ouverturian.

Dear compatriots, it is with these first words that I am saluting our
brothers and sisters from Africa, while I am standing on the soil of
the Central African Republic. Allow me to salute you by repeating
that same declaration that is, "In overthrowing me, they have
uprooted the trunk of the tree of peace." During the night of the
28th of February 2004, there was a coup d'etat. One could say that it
was a geo-political kidnapping. I can clearly say that it was
terrorism disguised as diplomacy. To conclude, this coup d'etat and
this kidnapping are like two quarters and 50 cents side by side.

I have always denounced the coming of this coup d'etat, but until the
27th of February, the day before, I didn't see that the crime was
going to be accompanied by kidnapping as well. The 28th of February,
at night, suddenly, American military personnel who were already all
over Port-au-Prince descended on my house in Tabarre to tell me first
that all the American security agents who have contracts with the
Haitian government only have two options. Either they leave
immediately to go to the United States, or they fight to die.
Secondly, they told me the remaining 25 of the American security
agents hired by the Haitian government who were to come in on the
29th of February as reinforcements were under interdiction, prevented
from coming. Thirdly, they told me the foreigners and Haitian
terrorists alike, loaded with heavy weapons, were already in position
to open fire on Port-au-Prince. And right then, the Americans
precisely stated that they will kill thousands of people and it will
be a bloodbath. That the attack is ready to start, and when the first
bullet is fired nothing will stop them and nothing will make them
wait until they take over, therefore the mission is to take me dead
or alive.

At that time I told the Americans that my first preoccupation was to
save the lives of those thousands of people tonight. As far as my own
life is concerned, whether I am alive or whether I am dead, that is
not what's important. As much as I was trying to use diplomacy, the
more the pressure was being intensified for the Americans to start
the attack. In spite of that, I took the risk of slowing down the
death machine to verify the degree of danger, the degree of bluff or
the degree of intimidation.

It was more serious than a bluff. The National Palace was surrounded
by white men armed up to their teeth. The Tabarre area -- the
residence -- was surrounded by foreigners armed to their teeth. The
airport of Port-au-Prince was already under the control of these men.
After a last evaluation I made during a meeting with the person in
charge of Haitian security in Port-au-Prince, and the person in
charge of American security, the truth was clear. There was going to
be a bloodbath because we were already under an illegal foreign
occupation which was ready to drop bodies on the ground, to spill
blood, and then kidnap me dead or alive.

That meeting took place at 3 a.m. Faced with this tragedy, I decided
to ask, "What guarantee do I have that there will not be a bloodbath
if I decided to leave?"

In reality, all this diplomatic gymnastics did not mean anything
because these military men responsible for the kidnapping operation
had already assumed the success of their mission. What was said was
done. This diplomacy, plus the forced signing of the letter of
resignation, was not able to cover the face of the kidnapping.

 From my house to the airport, everywhere there were American military
men armed with heavy weapons of death. The military plane that came
to get me landed while the convoy of vehicles that had come to get me
was near the tarmac at the airport. When we were airborne, nobody
knew where we were going. When we landed at one place nobody knew
where we were. Among us on the plane was a baby of one of my American
security agents who has a Haitian wife. They could not get out. We
spent four hours without knowing where we were. When we got back in
the air again, nobody knew where we were going.

It was not until 20 minutes before we landed in the Central African
Republic that I was given the official word that this is where we
would be landing. We landed at a French Air Force base but
fortunately there were 5 ministers from the government who came to
welcome us on behalf of the President there.

We know there are people back home who are suffering, who are being
killed, who are in hiding. But we also know that back home there are
people who understand the game, but will not give up because if they
give up, instead of finding peace, we will find death.

Therefore, I ask that everyone who loves life to come together to
protect the lives of others. I ask everyone who does not want to see
bloodshed to come together so that it is life that flourishes instead
of blood that has been spilled, or bodies falling. I know it's
possible that all Haitians who live in the tenth department [Haitians
living abroad] understand what tragedy lies hidden under the cover of
this coup d'etat, under the cover of this kidnapping. I know and they
know if we stand in solidarity we will stop the spread of death and
we will help life flourish. The same thing that happened to a
President who was democratically elected can happen at any time, in
any other country too. That's why the solidarity is indispensable to
protect a democracy that works together with life.

The constitution is the source of this life. It's the guarantee of
the life. Let's stand together under the constitution in solidarity
so that it is life that unfolds, and that it is peace that flourishes
and not death as we are seeing it. Courage, courage, courage! From
where I am with the First Lady, we have not forgotten what Toussaint
L'Ouverture has said, and that's why we saluted all of Africa with
his words, and we are saluting all Haitians everywhere with the
conviction that the roots of the tree of peace, with the spirit of
Toussaint L'Ouverture inside, are alive. They can cut the tree as
they have done with the machete of the coup d'etat, but they cannot
cut the roots of peace. It will sprout again because it has the
spirit of Toussaint L'Ouverture inside.