20006: radtimes: Leaders want probe of U.S. role in Haiti (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: radtimes <resist@best.com>

Leaders want probe of U.S. role in Haiti

http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?BRD=1281&dept_id=7576&newsid=11080627&PAG=461&rfi=9

by Tara York , Register Staff
03/06/2004

NEW HAVEN — Local clergy members and peace advocates are demanding that the
government welcome Haitians fleeing to the U.S. shores, and have called for
an investigation into the U.S. government's role in the ousting of Haiti's
president.

"There's real concern about the way it appears the United States allowed or
in some way encouraged what appears to be a coup of a democratic government
of a sitting president," said the Rev. Jerry Streets, Yale University chaplain.

Streets said that ousted Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide on a
visit to Yale University in the late 1990s said he was committed to
democracy and saw the United States as a friend.

"At some point that relationship changed, and we have no idea why," Streets
said Friday. "I'm wondering what constituted that change, and why we
weren't told the United States has changed its support. We want there to be
full accountability."

Streets, City Peace Commission Chairman Alfred L. Marder New Haven director
of the Connecticut Center for a New Economy the Rev. Scott Marks and
retired Rev. Edwin Edmonds are among a group of city and black religious
leaders who have issued a statement on the Haiti conflict to congressional
leaders.

"We deserve an explanation of what the U.S. is doing," Marks said. "We can
only make assumptions."

Edmonds said the situation in Haiti, and the U.S. treatment of Haitian
refugees – which he said is different than toward non-black immigrants –
implies discrimination.

"There must be a congressional investigation," Marder said. "Immediately,
initiated by our congressional delegation, on the role of the (U.S. Central
Intelligence Agency) and the State Department."

A two-page statement from the group asks how "terrorists" that rebelled
against Aristide's government used U.S. arms, equipment and uniforms.

The group also asks what role the CIA played, and "how come the Bush State
Department negotiated with terrorists who refused to accept the CARCOM (the
15-nation Caribbean organization) proposal of shared rule, which Aristide
had accepted?"

"These are all very relevant questions," said U.S. Rep. Rosa L. DeLauro,
D-3. "We had a democratically elected government; it's now been toppled.
There are a number of Haitians fleeing violence to the United States.

"It's clear we need to have a detailed evaluation about the events over the
past week, and the role the U.S. government (had) in the negotiations,"
DeLauro said.

Democratic members of the Congressional Black Caucus in Washington have
already begun pressing the Bush administration about the Haiti conflict.

The 15-nation Caribbean community has also called for an investigation into
Aristide's claim that the United States forced him out. Aristide was
reportedly exiled to the Central African Republic aboard an American plane.

U.S. officials have denied Aristide's own claims that he was forced by the
United States to resign and leave the country.

The statement by local leaders to the congressional delegation also demands
that the United States welcome Haitians fleeing for asylum.

"There has been discrimination against Haitians seeking political asylum,"
the document says. "If you are an anti-(Fidel) Castro Cuban, you are
automatically welcomed.

"If you are a black Haitian, our doors are locked."

DeLauro said Congress is already considering how to accommodate Haitian
refugees, and that she supports offering temporary protective status.
"These are people desperate for freedom," she said.

Tara York can be reached at 789-5714, or tyork@nhregister.com.

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