20389: Esser: Democracy Now! on Aristides Return to Caribbean (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: D. EsserDemocracy Now!
http://www.democracynow.org

Aristides Return to Caribbean
Transcript

March 14, 2004

Sunday 4 p.m.

AMY GOODMAN: I'm standing in front of the presidential palace where
two guards are at the doors. President Aristide, US Congressmember
Maxine Waters and the representative of CARICOM of the Jamaican Prime
Minister, PJ Patterson, are meeting with the president of the Central
African Republic. This we believe, just before the delegation will
leave. At this point it looks like the delegation will go back
tonight with Aristide and his wife Mildred Aristide returning them to
the Caribbean, they'll be going to Jamaica for the next weeks. When
President Aristide first saw the US delegation, he came out and said
he was very happy to see them, very sad to know that those in Haiti
are suffering so much, so he said today he has mixed feelings.

I'm Amy Goodman reporting from Bangui, Central African Republic where
just an hour or two ago the US delegation landed that was coming to
retrieve President Jean-Bertrand Aristide and his wife Mildred
Aristide and return them to the Caribbean, to Jamaica where they will
spend the next number of weeks. The US delegation was led by
Congressmember Maxine Waters and Randall Robinson coming from St.
Kitts - founder of TransAfrica. Also, representative of Prime
Minister PJ Patterson of Jamaica - representative of CARICOM - came
with a letter to present to the president of the Central African
Republic saying that the delegation is now taking President Aristide
and thanking the Central African Republic for its hospitality.
President Aristide has made it very clear in his interview with
Democracy Now! that he says he was kidnapped and that this is a coup
d'etat backed by the United States. Today we met with his security
here who was taken on the plane with him, we'll have more on that
story later. But he reiterated in a blow-by-blow description exactly
what happened on that late night, early morning of February 29th,
2004 when US diplomats came to President Aristide's home and, he
said, told them that he was taking them to a press conference. They
loaded into a car, instead were taken to the airport with a US jet
with an American flag on it. A number of US military piled in,
changing their military uniforms into civilian-wear, wearing baseball
caps. The security of the Aristide administration also piled in
apparently having been told in advance that the Aristides were being
taken to the airport and they were flown off like this to Antigua not
knowing where they were headed.

Again, President Aristide and Mildred Aristide now about to leave the
Central African Republic, we believe within the next hour or so. The
delegation will take them back to Jamaica. We made our way from Miami
to St. Thomas to Dakar, Senegal and then landed in Bangui and we
believe we'll be taking the same route back so I'll be filing
reports. Reporting from Bangui, Central African Republic, I'm Amy
Goodman for Democracy Now!.

DEMOCRACY NOW!: Amy there's a report on Reuters that the delegation
won't be leaving until tomorrow because the president of CAR wants
everyone to attend the celebrations marking the first anniversary of
the coup.

AMY GOODMAN: The delegation says that they have to leave tonight. It
is true that tomorrow is the first anniversary of the coup here in
the Central African Republic. Interesting that Jean-Bertrand Aristide
was ousted in a coup and brought to a country that had just undergone
a coup. But the president returned from a military ceremony on the
eve of this coup anniversary and apparently they are finalizing plans
to leave tonight and I will let you know further details in just a
little while because I'll be on the plane with them.

DEMOCRACY NOW!: Amy can you describe where President Aristide is being
kept?

AMY GOODMAN: President Aristide and Mildred Aristide are being kept
in a wing of the presidential palace. It is well guarded, there are
soldiers around, they are in side wing of the palace and they are not
free to come and go and it is clear that they very much want to
return to the Caribbean, unclear where they will end up after Jamaica.

Shortly before the delegation left, Amy Goodman filed this report:

AMY GOODMAN: I am Amy Goodman reporting from Miami Florida at a
private airfield right next to the Miami international airport, where
a delegation of five people has gathered to go to bring President
Aristide and his wife Mildred Aristide back from the Central African
Republic to Jamaica. I am going to bring you the different people who
on this delegation and they will describe the purpose of the
delegation and introduce themselves. We begin with the representative
from Caricom.

SHARON HAY-WEBSTER: Hi I am Sharon Hay-Webster, I am an emissary of
Prime Minister Patterson, chairman of Caricom. As you are aware
Jamaica has responded to Mr. Aristide's request for us to grant him
space to stay as family so he may bring his family together so he can
arrange for a final home that they can occupy together.

AMY GOODMAN: Will Jamaica be the place where President Aristide and
Mildred Aristide stay, how long will they stay and where will they go?

SHARON HAY-WEBSTER: As the chairman of Caricom indicated, it is
anticipated that the longest they will stay is 8 to 10 weeks. We hope
that before that they will have had a chance to complete their
arrangements.

AMY GOODMAN: And has Jamaica received any pressure for accepting
Aristide back into the Western Hemisphere. I understand that people
like Gen. Colin Powell are rather concerned about his return.

SHARON HAY-WEBSTER: Concern may have been expresser, however, there
has also been an expression of understanding to Caricom's response.

AMY GOODMAN: We are also joined by Congressmember Maxine Waters who
was one of the leaders of this delegation who really pulled it
together. Congresswoman Waters can you talk about why you have done
this? Why you are flying on a chartered plane to the Central African
Republic.

REP. MAXINE WATERS: I have been involved with making sure that
President Aristide and his wife Mildred are safe and secure and that
they could reasonably plan their future. He was dropped into the
Central African Republic without anybody talking to him from our
government or the French government telling him what he could expect
or where he would be taken or whether or not he could leave. And so
my involvement has been to help clarify that and I am very pleased
that it is clarified and that Jamaica has responded to his request to
come to Jamaica where he will be temporarily until he settles
permanently some place else.

AMY GOODMAN: Is there any word yet where he will settle?

REP. MAXINE WATERS: No. We don't have any knowledge of his plans
following his stay in Jamaica.

AMY GOODMAN: And have you Congressmember Waters been under any
pressure for this trip? It certainly runs counter to U.S. government
policy. What level of government are you speaking to right now?

REP. MAXINE WATERS: Well, there has been a lot of difficulty just
working out the details of the trip. I have not been impeded in any
way by my own government or the French government and I talk with
them directly because I wanted a clarification, I wanted to know
whether or not they were holding President Aristide against his will.
They have assured me that they are not and I have talked to them and
I have no problems at this point with either government.

AMY GOODMAN: Congressmember Maxine Waters we are just about to get in
the van to go to the plane and I will see if Randall Robinson will
wrap up this short report from Miami as we head off to the Central
African Republic. Why are you here, Randall Robinson, founder of
TransAfrica and author of the book "Qutting America."

RANDALL ROBINSON: We are here to go to the Central African Republic
to bring president and Mrs Aristide home to the Caricom community. We
expect to arrive in the Central African Republic tomorrow in the
afternoon and leave shortly thereafter, hopefully arriving in Jamaica
on Monday morning at about 9 o'clock. That's our mission and we are
optimistic that it will go well.

AMY GOODMAN: And that was Randall Robinson and three of the members
of the delegation, Sharon Hay-Webster, Jamaican parliamentarian,
representative of Caricom, the Caribbean community which came out
with a fierce statement last week. Caricom, headed by the head of
Jamaica PJ Patterson [called] for an investigation into the ouster
and coup against Jean-Bertrand Aristide with very harsh words for the
United States; Randall Robinson, coming in from St. Kits, and
Congressmember Maxine Waters. We are headed now to the plane. We'll
be reporting soon. I am Amy Goodman in Miami...

[A few minuters later]

AMY GOODMAN: We have just gotten on the plane which will take us to
the Central African Republic. We've been told we have two stops, one
in Saint Thomas and one in Dakar, Senegal. When we arrived at the
private airport security guards said the delegation that is headed to
pick up President Aristide and his wife would not be allowed to hold
a news conference, that they did not have permission for that and
after some back and forth, the delegation decided it would walk off
the airport property to hold their news conference because press was
here to ask why they are going and to get the update on the situation
with President Aristide, they agreed that they'd be able to hold the
news conference on the property of the airport.

And so now we are inside the plane. everyone has just sat down. We've
been told what the itinerary is and we are ready to go. I have to go.
The plane is about to take off on this historic mission to bring back
the democratically elected president of Haiti, Jean-Bertrand
Aristide, and his wife, Haitian-American Mildred Aristide. Reporting
on the tarmac in Miami, I am Amy Goodman for Pacifica Radio's
Democracy Now!
.