20355: (Hermantin)Miami-Herald-Group ushering Aristide back to region (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: leonie hermantin <lhermantin@hotmail.com>

Posted on Sun, Mar. 14, 2004




EXILE JOURNEY


Group ushering Aristide back to region

A group flies from Miami to Africa to escort Jean-Bertrand Aristide and his
wife to Jamaica, where the couple will stay for a few weeks and meet with
their children.

BY JACQUELINE CHARLES

jcharles@herald.com


A delegation of five Aristide supporters flew from Miami to the Central
African Republic Saturday night to pick up former Haitian President
Jean-Bertrand Aristide and his wife, Mildred, with the goal of escorting the
couple to Jamaica for a two- or three-month respite.

The delegation and the Aristides are expected to arrive in Jamaica on
Monday.

The Aristides will be reunited with their two daughters, who have been
staying in New York since just before Aristide was flown out of Haiti last
month.

The delegation included Aristide's attorney, Ira Kurzban; U.S. Rep. Maxine
Waters and her husband, former Ambassador to the Bahamas Sidney Williams;
TransAfrica head Randall Robinson, and Sharon Hay-Webster, a representative
of Jamaican Prime Minister P.J. Patterson.

Kurzban said it took two days to clear the Aristides' trip with the Central
African Republic government. The delegation called Jamaica a holding place
for the Aristides until the family finds a permanent home.

''Jamaica is acting as a host in response to Mr. Aristide's request,''
Hay-Webster said, adding that Aristide will be living on government property
while in Jamaica.

Said Waters: ``Our mission is clearly a humanitarian one. The president and
his wife have been sitting in the Central African Republic without knowing
what was going to happen to them. In Jamaica, he will have an opportunity to
be in a secure and safe surrounding in the region he is familiar with.''

Robinson said he isn't worried that Aristide's presence will increase
tensions in Haiti.

''I don't think the democratically elected president can be seen as someone
who would agitate,'' Robinson said.

Patterson has said that Aristide's visit to Jamaica, 130 miles southwest of
Haiti, will last only eight to 10 weeks. Aristide has not been granted
political asylum on the island.

Haiti's new prime minister, Gerard Latortue, however, has warned that
Aristide's return to the region will only increase tensions in Haiti. He has
said he will not meet with Aristide.

Aristide maintains that he is still the legitimate leader of Haiti and that
the U.S. government forced him out. U.S. officials say Aristide asked for
help and that they saved his life by arranging his departure on a
U.S.-chartered aircraft during the rebellion.

Aristide made the assertion again during a half-hour interview on Friday,
The New York Times reported. He said the United States had duped him into
leaving Haiti and his presidency.

The accusation of deception added a new layer to Aristide's complaint,
lodged upon his arrival in the Central African Republic 13 days ago, that he
had been the victim of an American-led ``political kidnapping.''

In the interview, Aristide described a scene of confusion in the early hours
of Feb. 29 as rebel forces advanced toward the Haitian capital. In meetings
at his home, he said, U.S. Ambassador James Foley and other U.S. officials
urged him to flee the country or risk provoking a blood bath.

''American agents came to tell me that it was a matter of hours -- either I
leave, or there will be bloodshed,'' he said.

``We had conversations with the U.S. ambassador to Haiti, with American
militaries, with Americans, with Haitians.''

Unconvinced, Aristide said, he debated his options with his own security
experts and considered going instead to Haiti's National Palace or to the
national journalism center.

Aristide said Foley agreed that he should meet with journalists, but at the
Port-au-Prince airport.

''Instead of taking me to the house of journalists or to the National
Palace,'' he said, ``they took me to the airport, where I saw a number of
American military and an American plane.''

Aristide said he did not resist boarding the aircraft, feeling that he had
no choice but to fly into exile. ''It wasn't necessary for them to say a
word,'' he said.

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