22866: Fenton: Visiting Haitian Academics Angered By Aristide's "Kidnapping" (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Anthony Fenton <apfenton@ualberta.ca>

by Matome Sebelebele
4 August 2004
All Africa
(c) 2004 AllAfrica, All Rights Reserved

Pretoria, Aug 04, 2004 (BuaNews/All Africa Global Media via COMTEX) --

Haitian academics and activists have spoken out for the first time against
the alleged "kidnapping" of ousted President Jean Bertrande Aristide.

They too are blaming both France and US for orchestrating a coup and
undermining the Haitian independence.

Speaking at a seminar titled Haiti today, Challenges and Prospects at the
University of South Africa in Pretoria, the visiting four member delegation
that arrived here at the weekend, also questioned the United Nations for
"refusing" to investigate President Aristide's "kidnapping".

Mr Aristide, who is Pretoria's special guest, was ousted earlier this year
and subsequently sent to the Central African Republic by the US before
spending 11 weeks in Jamaica, where he was temporarily housed, much
to the ire of some academics.

However, the academics argued Haiti was being subjected to a barrage
of misinformation by the world especially by France and the US, who after
differing on Iraqi "found common grounds in Haiti by overthrowing an
elected government."

Jamaican-born Verene Shepherd, a social history Professor at the
University of West Indies, said the west was engaged in a systematic
campaign to humiliate and enslave Haiti, trap it in a cycle of poverty and
political instability while their media flashed negative pictures of a country
in flames.

This, to project Mr Aristide, whom the academics say was a popular
leader and that country's only elected leader, as unpopular and whose
policies were perpetuating poverty and underdevelopment.

Lucie Tondreau, a Haitian journalist and radio talk show host, said prior to
Mr Aristide's "kidnapping", the country was abound with rumours of an
imminent coup "so by the time Aristide was kidnapped, nobody took it
seriously".

The delegates also lashed out at what they called "an Haitian elite which
refuses to participate in the country's development" but encouraged their
supporters to burn tyres and cars in the streets when the nation was
celebrating the country's independence founded by their forefathers.

The academics appealed to Africans, including those in the diaspora, to
stop perpetuating misinformation about their country, saying that fed into
the western powers who are determined to persecute and embarrass the
Caribbean nation for demanding reparations.

They also dismissed the media hype about the conflict during the
country's bicentenary celebration early this year.

They believe that the celebrations, which President Thabo Mbeki attended,
were not about the former priest or anyone who might have been ruling
the country at the time but about the country's history, which they
contended had a lasting influence in African liberation struggles across
the continent and subsequent independence.

The activist also dismissed as "misinformation" by western powers and
their media organisations the contention that Aristide was not kidnapped
but that he had resigned.

In terms of the Haitian Constitution, academics affirmed that President
Aristide was required to hand in his resignation letter to the head of
Parliament, who will then appoint the head of Supreme Court as the
interim Head of State.

Instead the French and US ambassadors received the alleged letter,
which Haitians demanded to be made public.

Mr Jacques Depelchin, executive director of an NGO in the Democratic
Republic of Congo, said Africans failed to take their own history seriously
as well as be "loyal" and draw inspiration from the Haitian slave
revolution.

"Why this difficulty to be faithful to that freedom...this inability to carry
on
from that freedom?" he asked, saying it was time for Africa to "completely,
totally moved away from the colonial mindset".

He said the unconstitutional removal of Aristide from power was almost
similar to that of the DRC's first elected Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba,
who was allegedly kidnapped by the Belgians before being killed for
standing up to colonial powers.

The panel agreed that Mr Aristide was punished for having the "guts" to
demand reparations for colonial injustices.

Some believed that Mr Aristide was punished for prioritising social spend
rather than on the military and associating himself with Cuban President
Fidel Castro and Venezuela's leader Hugo Chavez, who are seen to be
enemies of the United States.

Haiti, the first black country to gain independence is the only country to be
made to pay its former colonial master reparations, which academics and
international relations students find "problematic".

Before being overthrown, President Aristide was demanding reparations
from France, which academics contended today stood at about 21 billion
US Dollars.

Meanwhile, the delegation says it is not "coincidental" that the former
priest was first removed from office by US leader George Bush senior and
later reinstated by President Bill Clinton before George W. Bush junior
forced him out with the academics questioning the US's involvement in
Haiti's politics.

They also alleged that the US exerted pressure on Jamaica, with the
former's national security adviser Condoleezza Rice and Secretary of
State Colin Powell "to chase away Aristide".