20178: (Chamberlain) France-Aristide (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

   By ANGELA DOLAND

   ROISSY, March 10 (AP) -- Former Haitian President Jean-Bertrand
Aristide's legal team is preparing cases accusing authorities in the United
States and France of abducting him and forcing him into exile, lawyers said
Wednesday.
   Aristide believes he is still president of Haiti and will use the courts
in his fight to return home, U.S. lawyer Brian Concannon said in Paris
after meeting Aristide in Central African Republic.
   In the United States, "there are preparations for a kidnapping case
against the American authorities," Concannon said, without providing
further details.
   Another American lawyer for Aristide, Ira Kurzban, has sent a letter to
Attorney General John Ashcroft asking the Justice Department to investigate
the circumstances of Aristide's departure on Feb. 29.
   U.S. authorities say Aristide fled of his own will as his government
collapsed and rebels advanced on Port-au-Prince, but Aristide's lawyers
claim U.S. authorities forced him to board a 20-hour flight out of the
country.
   "He was not free to leave the plane," Concannon said. "He was not free
to decide the plane's direction. He did not even know where the plane was
going."
   Aristide also accuses France of working with the United States to force
his departure. In France, a lawyer is preparing a complaint for "complicity
in abduction" against four people connected with the Foreign Ministry,
Concannon said.
   He identified them as: Thierry Burkard, France's ambassador to Haiti;
Yves Gaudel, the former ambassador; envoy Regis Debray; and Foreign
Minister Dominique de Villepin's sister, Veronique. She and Debray visited
him in December to demand his resignation, according to Aristide's French
lawyer, Gilbert Collard.
   Collard said he will file a legal complaint in France as soon as he
receives clearance from Aristide but would not name the targets of the
complaint.
   "At the very least, France was an accomplice," Collard said.
   France's Foreign Ministry did not immediately return calls Wednesday
seeking comment. It said last week that officials had no preconceived ideas
on how Haiti's crisis should be resolved until just days before Aristide's
resignation, when the foreign minister himself suggested that Aristide step
down.
   U.S. officials strongly deny claims that Aristide was abducted.
Secretary of State Colin Powell has said they acted at Aristide's request
and probably saved his life.
   At least 130 people were killed in the rebellion that ousted Aristide;
reprisal killings since his ouster have left at least 300 dead.
   "As stated for several days, President Aristide resigned voluntarily,
after he initiated discussion of the matter with our rep in Haiti," a State
Department official said this week on condition of anonymity. "We consider
his resignation final and hope that he will respect the constitutional
process under way."
   The ousted leader has been in Bangui since March 1 and is housed in a
presidential palace apartment.