20158: radtimes: Aristide Lawyers Demand U.S. Prosecute "Kidnappers" Of Aristide and His Haitian-American Wife (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: radtimes <resist@best.com>

Aristide Lawyers Demand U.S. Prosecute "Kidnappers" Of Aristide and His
Haitian-American Wife

http://www.pacifica.org/programs/dn/040309.html

We speak with Ira Kurzban, lawyer for the Haitian government, about
invoking the Multilateral Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of
Crimes Against Internationally Protected Persons to serve Secretary of
State Gen. Colin Powell with papers asking that the U.S. prosecute the
people involved in what they call the kidnapping of President Aristide and
his wife Mildred, who is a U.S. citizen.

Lawyers representing Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide today are
serving Secretary of State Gen. Colin Powell with papers asking that the US
prosecute the people involved in what they call the kidnapping of Aristide
and his wife Mildred, who is a US citizen. The lawyers are invoking the
Multilateral Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Crimes Against
Internationally Protected Persons.

The request that the United States fulfill its obligations under the
Convention stems from what Aristide's lawyers call the intentional
commission of internationally recognized crimes that were "part of a coup
d'etat organized and implemented by officials of the Government of the
United States of America to remove and replace the democratically-elected
President of Haiti..." The demand specifically references the kidnapping of
the Aristide while on board an aircraft belonging in whole or in part to
the United States.

In a letter to Attorney General John Ashcroft, Aristide's lawyers said,
"These criminal acts appear to have been carried out by U.S. government
personnel acting under the orders of high-ranking United States government
officials, including the United States Depute Charge de Mission in Haiti,
Luis Moreno, and possibly Assistant Secretary of State Roger Noriega
(Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs), Secretary of State Colin Powell and
Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld."

Aristide's lawyers are also calling on the Inter-American Commission on
Human Rights to initiate a fact finding mission to Haiti to investigate
what they say are summary executions and continued violence against Lavalas
supporters.

     * Ira Kurzban, a Miami-based lawyer. Since 1991, he has served as
General Counsel for the government of Haiti.


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