20457: Esser: Aristide back in Caribbean heat (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: D. Esser torx@joimail.com

The Atlanta Journal Constitution
http://www.ajc.com

Mar. 16, 2004

Aristide back in Caribbean heat

By PETER EISNER
Washington Post

KINGSTON, Jamaica -- Jean-Bertrand Aristide stepped back into the
white glare of a Caribbean afternoon Monday, wearing a broad smile
and the same dark suit he had on two weeks ago when he was banished
from the presidency of Haiti and deposited into exile half a world
away.
 
"We're here. It's unbelievable, but true," Aristide said, leaning
forward in his seat as a chartered Gulfstream jet taxied toward the
end of a 17-hour flight from the Central African Republic where he
and his wife had been living in a government guesthouse since his
ouster on Feb. 29.
 
Even before the plane touched down, Aristide's return was condemned
by Haiti's new interim government and its supporters in the Bush
administration. Haiti's interim prime minister, Gerard Latortue,
suspended diplomatic relations with Jamaica to protest the invitation
to Aristide to visit for a temporary stay 115 miles from the Haitian
coast.
 
During an extended interview on the flight, Aristide was adamant that
he remained Haiti's legitimate leader, but was coy about his future
plans. "Let us be wise enough to continue to listen to the voice of
the Haitian people," he said. "They will always know I cannot forget
their suffering."
 
Aristide said he hoped his supporters in Haiti would find comfort in
his proximity. "I do believe many Haitians who are poor or suffering,
or in hiding think that if I am closer physically, it's better for
them instead of being far away," he said.
 
The mission to return Aristide to the region was organized by Rep.
Maxine Waters, D- Calif., Randall Robinson, former president of
TransAfrica Forum, a Washington lobbying and research group, and
Aristide's Miami attorney, Ira Kurzban. He was greeted at the
Kingston airport by Jamaica's prime minister, P. J. Patterson.
 
Jamaican officials have said Aristide would visit for eight to 10
weeks so he and his wife, Mildred Trouillot, could be reunited with
their two young daughters, who had been dispatched for safety to the
United States. Aristide and his wife boarded a helicopter at the
airport, heading for a rural guesthouse offered by the Jamaican prime
minister.
 
During the interview, Aristide gave a detailed account of what he
alleged was "a coup and a modern day kidnapping" carried out by the
United States. U.S. officials have disputed his account, made
previously in telephone interviews and through intermediaries.
Secretary of State Colin L. Powell has characterized his claims as
"absurd." The deputy chief of the U.S. Embassy in Port-au-Prince,
Luis Moreno, said in an interview earlier this month that Aristide
willingly accepted the terms of departure and signed a letter of
resignation.
 
Aristide's version of the events differed markedly from that of U.S.
officials.
 
The ousted president said that he had been conferring with U.S.
Ambassador James Foley about ways of avoiding violence and bloodshed
in Port-au-Prince on Feb. 28. An armed insurgency led by former
members of Haiti's feared military that Aristide had disbanded, and
death squad leaders was threatening to attack the capital the
following day.
 
Aristide said Foley agreed that he should go with an American escort
to a location where he could appear on television to appeal for calm.
 
"I wanted to talk to the press, as I did the night before for more
than one hour and a half talking to the people through the national
TV," Aristide said. "This was my responsibility. And I could do it
again and again each time as was necessary."
 
But he said that by the time Moreno arrived at his residence on the
morning on Feb. 29, U.S. troops were surrounding it. Aristide said he
felt threatened by the Americans, who told him that "thousands of
people including me would be killed."
 
"I know there were American military and maybe other militaries from
other countries. I cannot say only Americans," Aristide said. "But
there were a considerable number."
 
Aristide said he left in a car with the Americans, who said they
could provide security. "But instead of moving from where we were at
my house" to meet with news media, Aristide said, "we went straight
to the plane," which he described as an unmarked white aircraft with
an American flag.
 
Aristide said he was obliged to board the plane, and was followed by
a number of U.S. troops in full combat gear, who changed into
civilian clothes and baseball caps once they were aboard the plane.
Also on board with him and his wife were 19 members of a private
security company contracted by the United States to protect Aristide.
 
Aristide's account was supported by two witnesses present on the
evening of Feb. 28 and the morning of Feb. 29. One was Franz Gabriel,
a pilot and aide to Aristide; the other was an American security
guard.
 
"I was at the house at 5 a.m. when Moreno came in to tell the
president they were going to organize a press conference and be ready
to accompany them," said Gabriel, who accompanied Aristide and his
wife to Africa and to Jamaica. "We boarded to go to the embassy and
we ended up at the airport. That's what Mr. Moreno wanted him to do."
 
The American security guard, speaking on condition he not be
identified, described the U.S. security warning as a subterfuge to
lure Aristide away. "That was just bogus. It's a story they
fabricated," he said
 
Some members of Congress, including Waters, have called for an
investigation of the U.S. role in Aristide's ouster. Waters,
interviewed during the flight to pick up Aristide, rejected Bush
administration assertions that Aristide, a former slum priest, had
caused recent strife in Haiti through questionable elections and a
turn away from democracy.
 
"I worked with some of my friends trying to help the United States
avoid this confrontation that took place in Haiti," she said. "You
know the devastating understanding that my own government was
involved in helping to foster the confrontation that eventually led
to the coup d'etat has been quite overwhelming."
 
Aristide said that despite a freeze on funding from the United States
and the European Community, which together blocked delivery of a $500
million loan from the Inter-American Development Bank, he was able to
promote social and educational projects.
 
He said he was particularly proud of a new medical school, the
University of Tabare, which had 247 students. "The Marines are now
using it as their base," Aristide said, charging that doctors who
teach at the school had been intimidated into halting their classes.
"The fact that it was created in the middle of an embargo shows our
commitment to social funding," he said.
 
Aristide also charged that U.S. officials were fostering the
resurgence of former death squad and army members. He said that the
leaders of the insurgency had been wrongly portrayed as part of a
democratic opposition, describing them as killers and drug dealers,
and he charged that U.S. officials were supporting insurgent leaders
Guy Philippe, a former army officer, and Jean-Francois Chamblain, a
former leader of the Front for the Advancement and Progress of Haiti
(FRAPH), that operated as a death squad during the early 1990s. "They
will kill those who support democracy," Aristide said.
 
Aristide said he has heard reports that members of his Lavalas party
are in hiding, following killings of its members. Others he said, are
being forced into exile. "Some others are braving the killers to
demonstrate," he said, adding that he had watched peaceful
demonstrations in which Haitians walked up to television cameras and
held up five fingers in a sign of support for Aristide, meaning that
they want him to serve out his five year term, he said. " You have to
be courageous to do that, Aristide said.
 
Aristide's opponents have blamed members of the ousted president's
party for instigating the violence that has engulfed Haiti over the
past two months.
 
Aristide came to prominence in the slums around Port-au-Prince in the
1980s, when as a priest he opposed the family dictatorship of
Francois "Papa Doc" Duvalier and his son, Jean-Claude "Baby Doc"
Duvalier, who controlled Haiti for 29 years with U.S. backing.
Aristide charged that the new interim government would resurrect a
strong, repressive military and prop up a light-skinned wealthy
minority. "It is in essence, racist," Aristide asserted.
 
The vast majority of Haiti's population of 8 million are poor blacks,
and Aristide said he thinks he still has strong support among them.
 
He said one of his ministers told him recently about a woman who was
asked by a reporter which party she supported.
 
"She answered, 'I support Aristide. It is because of Aristide that
you talk to me this way' " with respect for her dignity, Aristide
recounted. "I don't know her name but the woman knows that I care.
Despite the misery, she knows that I cannot feel good when she feels
bad," Aristide said. Haitians "will always know I cannot forget their
suffering. I will not lie to them."
.