20398: Esser: Aristide Takes Fight to French Court (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: D. Esser torx@joimail.com

Inter Press Service News Agency
http://www.ipsnews.net

Mar 15, 2004

Aristide Takes Fight to French Court

Julio Godoy

PARIS, Mar 15 (IPS) - Ousted Haitian president Jean-Bertrand Aristide
has taken his battle to a court in Paris.

An international team of lawyers has filed a petition in a Paris
court alleging that officials from the French and U.S. governments
kidnapped him and led a coup.

U.S. lawyer Ira Kurzban is reported to have met Aristide in Bangui,
the capital of the Central African Republic, to discuss the legal
strategy in this new battleground. Kurzban and his French partner
Gilbert Collard announced in Paris later that they would sue the U.S.
and French governments.

Aristide has been in exile in Bangui since March 1 after U.S.
officials forced him to quit the Haitian capital Port-au-Prince.

His lawyers describe how Aristide was ousted. On the night of Feb.
28-29 U.S. ambassador James Foley met Aristide's prime minister Yvon
Neptune. Neptune declared after the meeting that ”the situation is
extremely worrisome.”

Later that night U.S. deputy ambassador Luis Moreno accompanied by
six U.S. special agents met Aristide. Under pressure from Moreno,
Aristide signed a letter saying ”if my resignation can avoid a blood
bath, I accept to leave in the hope that life will triumph, and not
death.”

Moreno then led Aristide to an aircraft that flew him and his wife to
the Central African Republic.

Aristide now blames Foley, French ambassador to Port-au-Prince
Thierry Burkard, his predecessor Yves Gaudel, author Régis Debray and
the French foreign minister Dominique de Villepin's sister Veronique
Albanel for conspiring in the plot to oust him.

Debray, who became well known for his close relationship with Ernesto
”Che” Guevara during the latter's failed guerrilla campaign in
Bolivia and Albanel were French special envoys to Haiti last year.
They negotiated ways with Aristide to cut short the political crisis
in the Caribbean country.

Debray presided over the 'independent deliberation committee on the
French- Haitian relationships' created by the French government.
Albanel, president of the hitherto unknown non-governmental
organisation Universal Fraternity was a member of this committee.

Spokesperson for the French ministry of foreign affairs Hervé Ladsous
justified Albanel's participation on the ground that ”a number of
personalities were invited to participate in the deliberations”
because of their ”professional experience.” Collard now says Debray
and Albanel pushed the Haitian president to resign and leave the
country. ”The U.S. government wanted to oust Aristide, and the French
government played accomplice,” Collard told media representatives.

Collard says Aristide's resignation letter was unconstitutional.
”Aristide was surrounded by heavily armed foreign agents, and it was
in the middle of the night.”

Kurzban said the plane that flew Aristide and his wife out of Haiti
belongs to the U.S. government. ”The kidnappings of Aristide and his
wife were committed by U.S. officials apparently acting under the
orders of the U.S. deputy ambassador Luis Moreno, and very likely of
the U.S. deputy secretary of state for Latin America Roger Noriega,
and the secretary of state Colin Powell and of defence Donald
Rumsfeld,” Kurzban told media representatives here.

Until mid-February, despite several weeks of fighting within Haiti
neither the U.S. nor the French government had asked for the
resignation of Aristide. France was calling for an international
peacekeeping mission.

But Feb. 25 de Villepin openly urged Aristide to resign. ”Aristide
carries a heavy responsibility for the present situation,” de
Villepin said in Paris that day. ”He must assume these
responsibilities. His government is in a deadlock, and beyond all
constitutional norms.”

Three days later, the U.S. government adopted the new French
position. And later that day Aristide was no longer in office.

His lawyers say that in the face of the growing success of the
rebels, Aristide had sought a reinforcement of his personal guard
early in February. Security was provided by the U.S. firm Steele
Foundation.

But the company rejected the demand. The French newspaper Le Monde
quoted a diplomat as saying ”a telephone call from Washington to San
Francisco (where Steele Foundation is based) settled this question.”

Le Monde reported that Foley had warned the Steele Foundation that
”the U.S. marines won't come to rescue your men (protecting Aristide)
if they are run over by the rebels.”

Several reports in the French media suggest that the French stand
against Aristide came in response to Aristide's threats that he would
turn to an international court to seek compensation for the price
former Haitian slaves had to pay to obtain independence in 1804. The
daily Le Parisien estimated that Aristide's claims would add up to
some 28 billion dollars.

The evident pressure the French government exerted upon Aristide to
secure his resignation throws poor light on France as a supporter of
international legality.

As French soldiers landed in Haiti along with U.S. marines last week,
de Villepin praised ”the perfect U.S.-French cooperation.” This
cooperation goes beyond military cooperation in Haiti. Both
governments are blocking demands to investigate the circumstances
surrounding Aristide's resignation. (END/2004)

Copyright © 2004 IPS-Inter Press Service.
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