20028: Esser: Aristide calls for peaceful resistance (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: D. Esser torx@joimail.com

The Canadian Press

Mon, March 8, 2004

Aristide calls for peaceful resistance

PARIS (CP) - Exiled Haitian president Jean-Bertrand Aristide, in a
telephone conversation aired Monday on French radio, called on
countrymen to peacefully resist the "unacceptable occupation" of
Haiti and said he remains the country's president.

"The Haitian people resist and must continue to finalize a peaceful
resistance to face down this unacceptable occupation that follows
this political kidnapping which is also unacceptable," Aristide said.
RTL radio, which aired the comments, said that Aristide was speaking
not in an interview but in a telephone conversation with a friend. He
agreed to allow the conversation to be aired, according to RTL. The
radio station did not say when the conversation took place.

Aristide flew into exile March 1 in the Central African Republic
where he is currently housed in an apartment at the presidential
palace in Bangui, the capital.

His comments were aired less than 24 hours after Aristide, in a note
read by Central African Republic Foreign Minister Charles Wenezoui,
said he would respond to journalists' questions "at the opportune
time."

Aristide has apparently not left the crumbling palace since his
arrival but said in the note that he was "well looked-after."

In the conversation aired Monday, Aristide reiterated claims that he
was kidnapped, saying that he thought he was being taken to make a
speech before the country when he was, instead, put aboard a plane.

He said he left "next to arms brandished by American and foreign
military" who had taken up positions around the presidential palace
in the Haitian capital and at the airport.

"I thought they were going to lead me to the press to speak to the
nation. I found myself aboard an airplane for 20 hours without
knowing where I would land," he said.

The United States, France and the West African country of Gabon
arranged Aristide's flight to Bangui. French and American troops are
in Haiti.

An advance team of 20 Canadian Forces military planners arrived in
Port-au-Prince on Sunday afternoon, joining about 60 Canadian troops
already on the ground. Others will be arriving Tuesday for
recognisance in addition to 450 soldiers scheduled to go in late next
week.

Aristide said he was "elected president of Haiti democratically" and
"remains the constitutional president" despite his departure.

There was no mention of the violence Sunday in the Haitian capital of
Port-Au-Prince in which six people were killed when shots broke out
during a protest demanding that Aristide be prosecuted. It was the
worst violence since the ouster of Aristide.
.