19950: Bellegarde-Smith: Aristide Details Last Moments In Haiti, Calls For Stop To Bloodshed , In First Address To Haitian People From Exile (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

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

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.

Copyright © 2004 Pacific News Service