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30785: Bennett (interview) Randall Robinson on Democracy Now! (fwd)
From: Nancy Bennett <nancymbennett@msn.com>
Democracy Now! http://www.democracynow.org
RANDALL ROBINSON ON "AN UNBROKEN AGONY: HAITI, FROM REVOLUTION TO THE
KIDNAPPING OF A PRESIDENT"
Monday, July 23rd, 2007
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=07/07/23/141241
TransAfrica Founder Randall Robinson chronicles the 2004 U.S.-backed coup
that ousted Haiti's democratically elected president Jean-Bertrand
Aristide. Robinson challenges the Bush administration's claim that the
Aristides voluntarily left Haiti and recalls his trip to the Central
African Republican to bring the Aristides back to the Caribbean. As the
Aristides remain in exile, Randall Robinson joins us in the Firehouse
studio for the hour to talk about the coup, the history of Haiti and the
state of affairs in Haiti since the 2004 coup. [includes rush transcript
- partial]
________________________________________________________________________________
Over 10,000 people marched in the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince last
Sunday. They were calling for the return of the exiled president,
Jean-Bertrand Aristide. It was his fifty-fourth birthday. A number of
people spoke, we begin with the folksinger Annette Auguste, popularly
known as "So An."
* Annette Auguste
On February 29th, 2004, the democratically elected president of Haiti,
Jean-Bertrand Aristide, was removed from office by the United States and
flown to the Central African Republic. Two weeks later, in defiance of
the United States, a delegation led by California Congressmember Maxine
Waters and TransAfrica founder Randall Robinson chartered a plane and
headed off to Central African Republic themselves to bring President
Aristide and his wife back to the Caribbean. I accompanied them on that
trip. After hours of negotiating with the dictator in the capital Bangui
they freed the Aristides. As we flew back over the Atlantic, President
Aristide said that he had been kidnapped in a US-backed coup d'etat.
* Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide
Its now more than three years later. The Aristides remain in exile in
South Africa and Randall Robinson has just written a book called "An
Unbroken Agony: Haiti, From Revolution to the Kidnapping of a President."
He flew in from the Carribean island of St. Kitts last night and joins us
in our firehouse studio today.
* Randall Robinson, author of "An Unbroken Agony: Haiti, From
Revolution to the Kidnapping of a President." He is founder and past
president of TransAfrica and the author of the bestsellers "The
Debt", "The Reckoning", and "Defending the Spirit."
________________________________________________________________________________
RUSH TRANSCRIPT
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AMY GOODMAN: 10,000 people marched in the Haitian capital of Port
Au-Prince last Sunday. They were calling for the return of the exiled
president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide. It was his fifty-fourth birthday. This
is Haitian folksinger and Lavalas leader Annette Auguste, more well known
as “So An,” speaking at the rally.
ANNETTE AUGUSTE: [translated] It is a nice way to say happy birthday
to President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, who is in exile in South Africa
today. There are people watching the final between Brazil and
Argentina. Still, it is good to see so many of the population who
took to the streets for a good cause. I always say that since
December of 1991. nothing has changed for the population.
LOUIS GERARD GILLES: [translated] Today’s rally shows that the
majority of the Haitian people are asking for the return of President
Jean-Bertrand Aristide. If there is a state of right existing in
Haiti today, it is just for the government of President Rene Preval
to do the right thing. It is unjust to have this politician in exile.
DEMONSTRATOR: [translated] President Aristide will come back, and
when he does, we will all cry for victory, because the real hope is
with President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, not with Preval.
AMY GOODMAN: On February 29th, 2004, three years ago, the democratically
elected president of Haiti, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, was removed from
office by the United States and flown to the Central African Republic.
Two weeks later, in defiance of the United States, a delegation led by
California Congressmember Maxine Waters and TransAfrica founder Randall
Robinson chartered a plane and headed off to the Central African Republic
themselves to bring President Aristide and his wife Mildred back to the
Caribbean. I accompanied them on that trip. After hours of negotiating
with the dictator in the capital Bangui, they freed the Aristides. As we
flew back over the Atlantic President Aristide said he had been kidnapped
in a US-backed coup d'etat.
JEAN-BERTRAND ARISTIDE: I will not go into details, maybe next time.
But as I said, they used force. When you have militaries coming from
abroad, surrounding your house, taking control of the airport,
surrounding the national palace, being in the streets, and taking you
from your house to put you in a plane where you have to spend twenty
hours without knowing where they were going to go with you, without
talking about details, which I already did somehow on other
occasions, it was using force to take an elected president out of his
country.
AMY GOODMAN: And was that US military that took you out?
JEAN-BERTRAND ARISTIDE: There were US military, and I suspect it
could be also completed with the presence of other militaries from
other countries.
AMY GOODMAN: When they came to your house, in the early morning of
February 29th, was it US military that came?
JEAN-BERTRAND ARISTIDE: There were diplomats. There were US military.
There were US people.
AMY GOODMAN: The Bush administration said that when you -- after you
got on the plane, when you were leaving, you spoke with CARICOM
leaders. Is this true?
JEAN-BERTRAND ARISTIDE: They lied. I never had any opportunity from
February 28 at night, when they started, to the minute I arrived in
car, I never had any conversation with anyone from CARICOM within
that frame of time.
AMY GOODMAN: How many US military were on the plane with you?
JEAN-BERTRAND ARISTIDE: I cannot know how many were there, but I know
it’s the plane with fifty-five seats. Among them we had nineteen
American agents […] The rest, they were American militaries.
AMY GOODMAN: Were they dressed in military uniform?
JEAN-BERTRAND ARISTIDE: They were not only dressed in -- with their
uniform, it was like if they were going to war. For the first period
of time on the ground, when we went to the plane, after the plane
took off, that's the way they were. Then they changed, moving from
the uniform to other kind of clothes.
AMY GOODMAN: Civilian clothing?
JEAN-BERTRAND ARISTIDE: Yes.
AMY GOODMAN: And did they go with you all the way to the Central
African Republic?
JEAN-BERTRAND ARISTIDE: They did, without telling me where they were
taking me, without telling me how long it would take us to be there.
AMY GOODMAN: Exiled President Jean-Bertrand Aristide in a plane heading
back to the Caribbean. Then it was to Jamaica. It’s now more than three
years later. The Aristides remain in exile in South Africa. And Randall
Robinson has just written a book called An Unbroken Agony: Haiti, From
Revolution to the Kidnapping of a President. He flew in from the
Caribbean island of St. Kitts last night and joins us in our firehouse
studio today. Welcome to Democracy Now!, Randall Robinson.
RANDALL ROBINSON: Thank you.
AMY GOODMAN: Well, it’s been three years since you and Congressmember
Maxine Waters, Sharon Hay Webster, the member of parliament from Jamaica,
led that delegation on this small plane to the Central African Republic,
actually won the release of the Aristides and brought them to Jamaica.
Talk about that, as you watched President Aristide three years ago in the
plane that you were in, as well, what you have learned since?
RANDALL ROBINSON: Well, we talked to -- I talked to a number of
witnesses, eyewitnesses to the abduction itself, witnesses in Antigua who
saw the plane on the ground, airport officials, and, of course, witnesses
to the whole operation and things that have gone on in Haiti.
AMY GOODMAN: Why don't you flesh out that entire experience that
President Aristide was just talking about, as you understand it today?
What happened February 29, 2004?
RANDALL ROBINSON: Well, Franz Gabriel was the president’s helicopter
pilot. Franz Gabriel was a sergeant in the US military and a Haitian
citizen who had gone home to serve in the government and to helicopter
the president around. At about 3:00 on the morning of the 29th, he was
called by one of the Haitian security people at the president's home in
Tabar and told that something wrong was developing in the president's
house.
I had placed a call to the president earlier that evening on the 28th,
and a voice that didn’t belong to the house answered the phone. It was an
American voice, a male American voice. And I said, “May I speak to
President Aristide?” “He’s not here.” “May I speak to Madame Aristide?”
His American-born wife, Mildred Trouillot Aristide. And, “She’s not
here.” “When will they be?” And I’m cut off. I became concerned. I had
never heard a strange voice answer their private phones before.
We had -- my wife Hazel had worked to arrange a visit of Tavis Smiley to
Haiti on the 29th. He was to interview the president downtown in central
Port-au-Prince at the palace about this turmoil that was unfolding in the
north of the country. The rebels, armed by the United States, had entered
the country early in February, moved north and away from the capital and
never showed, never demonstrated any inclination to attack
Port-au-Prince. And so, we were concerned in the United States, because
most of us didn’t know that they posed no threat to the democratic
government, and so Tavis was going there to interview the president, and
George Stephanopoulos was to interview him, as well.
And so, after I was unable to reach the president, Tavis Smiley called
me, or called my wife, because my wife was the one who was organizing his
visit. He said, “The visit’s off.” And my wife said, “Oh, no! Has
something happened to them?” And Tavis said, “No. I just got a call from
Secretary of State Colin Powell. And Secretary of State Powell said to me
that” --
AMY GOODMAN: This is Tavis?
RANDALL ROBINSON: Tavis, no -- well, yes, no. Tavis said that he got a
call from Ron Dellums. And Ron Dellums also worked with my wife on the
Haiti team. And Ron Dellums reported to Tavis that he had just gotten a
call from Secretary of State Colin Powell and that the secretary said
that Guy Philippe, the leader of the paramilitaries, the American-armed
and -trained paramilitaries, was coming to Port-au-Prince on Sunday to
kill the president. “And I want you, Ron Dellums, to let the president
know that this is going to happen, and let him know that the United
States will do nothing to protect him.” And so, Tavis said, of course,
the trip is off.
And then my wife called Ron Dellums, and Ron said, “Yes, I’ve just heard
from the secretary, and Guy Philippe is in Port-au-Prince and will kill
Aristide tomorrow, according to Secretary of State Powell,” who had to
have known that Guy Philippe was nowhere near Port-au-Prince. President
Aristide, of course, knew, because he had gotten reports from Franz
Gabriel. The idea was to frighten Aristide into abdicating his office and
fleeing the country on a plane provided by the United States. And
Aristide refused.
Later that morning, about thirty American Special Forces troops in full
combat gear, in twelve or thirteen white Chevy Suburbans of the American
embassy, surrounded the Aristide home, took positions on the wall around
the home. And you could see the red tracer pattern crisscrossing,
crosshatching in the yard of the home. And into the yard came one Chevy
Suburban with one of the Special Forces people fully armed, who was
attending Luis Moreno of the American embassy, who walked into the house
and told the president, “I was here when you came back in ’94, and I’m
here tonight to tell you it’s time for you to leave.”
They removed the president -- Moreno and the American Special Forces --
from his home, took them to the airport -- the president, Mrs. Aristide
and Franz Gabriel -- took them from their home, boarded them on this
large wide-bodied aircraft with no markings, no tail number, only the
sort of large flag, American flag, on the vertical tail assembly, and
flew off, making their first refueling stop in the eastern Caribbean in
Antigua.
Friends of ours at the airport in Antigua, airport officials, were not
allowed to board the plane, as is the custom for customs purposes. All of
the windows were drawn. The plane sat on the tarmac for five hours or so.
Secretary Rumsfeld said that when President Aristide was in Antigua, he
had met with members of the Caribbean leadership community. President
Aristide, as he said on the tapes -- quite right, and this is borne out
by witnesses in Antigua -- couldn’t have known where he was. He was not
allowed to see out of the plane, and no one on the outside was allowed
access to anyone who was on the plane.
And as I’ve published in the book -- I’ve published copies of the
American customs declarations -- and one of the declarations has been
altered from fifty present on the plane to no people on the plane by the
Americans who submitted the customs declarations to the Antiguan
authorities.
And then they flew off to the Ascension Island. And only when they were
approaching the Central African Republic were the Aristides told where
they were. And after they landed, no American official deplaned, no
soldiers, no one else. The Aristides were simply put off the plane, as if
they were parcels, along with Franz Gabriel. They weren’t even told or
treated or given any medication for the sometimes lethal malaria strand
that affects the Central African Republic and were kept there in a small
room for two weeks until our delegation arrived to try and negotiate
their release.
AMY GOODMAN: We’ll find out what happened after. This is Randall
Robinson. He’s just written a book called An Unbroken Agony: Haiti, From
Revolution to the Kidnapping of a President. Stay with us.
[break]
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