20202: Esser: Aristide targets US, France (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: D. Esser torx@joimail.com

News24 [South Africa]

Aristide targets US, France
03/10/2004 

Roissy, France - 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.

Aristide believes he is still president of Haiti and will use the
courts during his fight to return home, US lawyer Brian Concannon
said on Wednesday in Paris after meeting Aristide in exile 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 US lawyer for Aristide, Ira Kurzban, has sent a letter to
Attorney General John Ashcroft asking the US justice department to
investigate the circumstances of Aristide's departure on February 29.

While US authorities say Aristide fled of his own will as his
government collapsed and rebels advanced on Port-au-Prince,
Aristide's lawyers claim that US 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."

Concannon also said that French and US authorities threatened
Aristide before he signed a letter of resignation and fled.

"The ambassadors of France and the US told him that he would be
killed, his family would be killed and his supporters would be killed
if he did not leave right away," Concannon said.

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; Regis Debray, president of a
commission on French-Haiti relations; and Foreign Minister Dominique
de Villepin's sister, Veronique. She and Debray visited Aristide in
December to demand his resignation, according to his French lawyer,
Gilbert Collard.

Collard said he will file a legal complaint in France as soon as he
receives clearance from Aristide. But he would not name the targets
of the complaint.

"At the very least, France was an accomplice," Collard said.

French Foreign Ministry spokesperson Herve Ladsous said he had no
comment on the lawyers' plans.

US 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.

Edited by Anthea Jonathan
.