20399: (Hermantin)Miami-Herald-Worry greets Aristide's departure for Jamaica (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: leonie hermantin <lhermantin@hotmail.com>

Posted on Mon, Mar. 15, 2004


Worry greets Aristide's departure for Jamaica

BY MICHAEL A.W. OTTEY AND JACQUELINE CHARLES

mottey@herald.com


PORT-AU-PRINCE -- Former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide left the Central
African Republic, where he has been exiled since his ouster last month, and
headed for Jamaica. His expected return to the region today is causing
concern in Haiti, with some diplomats and military officials fearing that
his presence will spark a new round of bloodshed.

After some questions about whether Aristide and his wife, Mildred Trouillot,
would be allowed to leave the African country, they took off early today on
a chartered jet, accompanied by Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., and other
supporters.

On Saturday and Sunday, calm prevailed in Port-au-Prince. But James Foley,
the U.S. ambassador to Haiti, said Aristide's presence in Jamaica could have
a negative effect on the tenuous peace here. On ''humanitarian'' grounds,
Jamaica has invited Aristide to spend eight to 10 weeks on the island to be
reunited with his two children.

Aristide as recently as Friday continued to insist that he is still the
president of Haiti and the victim of a kidnapping at the hands of the United
States and France. U.S. and French officials have called the allegations
''absurd,'' maintaining that Aristide resigned and left Haiti voluntarily as
rebels advanced on Port-au-Prince.

`TREMENDOUS RISK'

''I think Jamaicans are taking a tremendous risk,'' Foley said during a
visit of Air Force Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of
Staff. ``We're still at the very early stages of operations, and Aristide's
forces are armed to the teeth. His coming within 150 miles from Haiti is
promoting violence.''

Bush administration officials also opposed his return.

''We think it's a bad idea,'' national security advisor Condoleezza Rice
said on NBC's Meet the Press. ``We believe that President Aristide, in a
sense, forfeited his ability to lead his people, because he did not govern
democratically.''

For several hours, it seemed as if Aristide might not be coming. The Central
African Republic's president, Gen. Francois Bozize, refused to allow
Aristide and his wife to leave the country, despite Aristide's repeated
desire to do so.

''It was a tense situation,'' said Aristide's lawyer, Ira Kurzban, in a
phone interview from the African country.

Bozize told Aristide that he needed the approval of both the United States
and France before allowing Aristide to leave, Kurzban said.

Bozize ''said that he checked with the United States and France before
letting Aristide into the country and it would only be right to check with
them before allowing him to leave,'' Kurzban said.

Delegation members speculated that Bozize wanted Aristide to take part in a
commemoration today of the first anniversary of the coup that brought Bozize
to power.

Aristide is expected to land in Jamaica this afternoon after 17 hours of
flying. Stops were scheduled for Dakar, Senegal; Cape Verde and Barbados.

In a brief interview Sunday night with The Washington Post before he left
Africa, Aristide declined to discuss his plans in Jamaica or the situation
in Haiti. ''I'm happy to see my friends, but sad that so many Haitians are
suffering,'' he said.

MORE PATROLS

Meanwhile, in Port-au-Prince, Army Maj. Richard Crusan, a spokesman for the
multinational peacekeeping force, said that while policymakers and Haitians
are openly expressing concern that Aristide allies will engage in street
violence, Marines and others will continue patrols and will put down any
violence, working alongside Haitian police.

So far, 2,653 military personnel from the United States, Canada, France, and
Chile are in Haiti.

On Friday, Marines on patrol in Bel-Air, an Aristide stronghold, came under
fire and shot back, killing two gunmen, Crusan said.

Family members told The Associated Press that one of the men was not
involved in politics and would not have carried a gun. They said he was
playing basketball when he was shot.

But Crusan said Sunday that the Marines had no doubt that the two men killed
were the shooters.

Meanwhile, multinational troop strength will continue to increase in Haiti
with new soldiers expected to arrive in coming days. Eventually, they will
be replaced by a United Nations peacekeeping force, Crusan said.

Today, the interim multinational force, comprising France, Canada, Chile and
the United States, will come under the command of an American, Marine Brig.
Gen. Ronald S. Coleman. Coleman, 55, who is black, was born in Philadelphia
and enlisted in the Navy in 1968. He served in Vietnam and became a second
lieutenant in the Marines in 1974.

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