Aristide's kidnap claim persists, despite evidence

[Freddie Stubbs]

Former Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide still says he was kidnapped from his country a year ago, but evidence sheds doubt on that assertion.

BY NANCY SAN MARTIN

[e-mail]


A year after Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide went into exile, he remains steadfast in his allegation that he was forced out of power in a ''modern day kidnapping'' backed by the U.S. and French governments.

But while the full truth remains unclear, the evidence available points to his voluntary departure -- certainly under pressure by Washington and Paris and amid dire warnings that he would be killed if he stayed, yet ultimately by his decision.

In a short phone conversation with his prime minister, Yvon Neptune, several hours before his departure from Haiti last Feb. 29, Aristide said he was leaving the country and offered Neptune the option of joining him in exile, the former prime minister told The Herald.

Aristide also wrote a letter of resignation on a white card, similar to a wedding invitation, and faxed it to the U.S. Embassy just hours before he flew out on Feb. 29, 2004. He handed over the original at the airport, The Herald was told.

more: http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/10996445.htm

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

1. hmmmm, what about the evidence of eyewitnesses who say

they saw US Marines dragging him up the ramp of the plane while he shouted "Non" Non?

[IndianaGreen]

2. You didn't expect the Miami Herald to say anything against the coup?

Aristide was removed in a US-instigated coup which was supported by the Haitian elites and their friends in America, and that includes the Miami Herald.

Haitians in Haiti are being slaughtered.
by Marguerite Laurent, Esq. Chair, Haitian Lawyers Leadership

Our Black people in Port-au-Prince Haiti are being slaughtered. The duly elected President kidnapped by U.S. Marines and flown out of the country at gunpoint and is being held hostage in the Central African Republic under U.S and French guard.

Yesterday, it is reported that, under U.S. marine escort the former FRAPH/FAHD thugs rolled into Port-au-Prince.

Aristide's private residence has been trashed.

The Prime Minister's residence has been trashed.

The first order of business for these U.S. supported death squad leaders and (Guy Philip, Jean Tatoune and Louis Jodel Chamblain) harden criminals was to go to the National Penitentiary and forcibly break out all the 2000 prisoners there.

http://www.margueritelaurent.com/pressclips/justicewithpeace.html

http://www.haitiaction.net/News/HAC/hac3_1_4.html

March 2, 2004

CBC: Bush helped rebels oust Aristide

By Hans Nichols

Members of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) yesterday accused the Bush administration of deliberately exacerbating the violence in Haiti to hasten the ouster of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.

They charged that the White House misled lawmakers about its intentions as it undermined Aristide — who was restored to power in 1994 by the Clinton administration following a coup — and forced him to flee to the Central African Republic.

Black lawmakers said the White House must prove that Aristide was not kidnapped.

They demanded conclusive evidence that the Haitian leader — whose 2000 election victory was internationally condemned as fraudulent — was not forced out at gunpoint.

http://www.hillnews.com/news/030204/haiti.aspx

[bpilgrim]

3. yeah, don't take the word of the person who was kidnapped and held

incommunicado. but do take the word of the kidnappers.

:crazy:

peace

[Mika]

4. Nancy San Martin is one of Otto Reich's excrement exit holes.

:puke:

[ooglymoogly]

5. time to re launder the very dirty linen on aristide coup

the stains just won't come out no matter how many times they are laundered. so good try, old blood stains are the worst, too bad there were so many witnesses to the calumny.

[peacetalksforall]

6. The Miami Herald sold out to the Cuban 'exiles of 46 years past', plus

their right wing supporters, and specifically, the left and right wing congresspeople who gave the exiles what they wanted and who let the exiles write the legislation.

[JohnOneillsMemory]

7. Pre-emptive propaganda as the anniversary of the US coup arrives.

The US informed the corporate mercenaries who were Aristide's security detail that they not only had to stand down, but must also accompany him to Africa so they were kidnapped too, one of them with child in arms.

The US had dumped 16,000 new M16s and flak jackets on thugs waiting in the Dominican Republic. They then rampaged across Haiti killing and torturing the population with the training AND approval of the Bush** corporate crime family.

The corporate presstitutes lied about the coup as usual. And now they are covering their tracks for the one year anniversary of another US assault on democracy and human rights.

http://news.pacificnews.org/news/view_article.html?article_id=68ea078d4f916517e92ee1c336d32285
>snip<

Aristide Details Last Moments In Haiti, Calls For Stop To Bloodshed In First Address To Haitian People From Exile

Commentary, Jean-Bertrand Aristide,
Pacific News Service, Mar 05, 2004
EDITOR’S NOTE: President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, who left a tumultuous Haiti under shadowy circumstances Feb. 29, has delivered an impassioned address “To the Haitian People and the World” by cell phone to a Haitian journalist in the United States working with a radio station in Berkeley, CA. In the address recorded early Friday, Aristide aims his words at Haitians, urging them to “stand in solidarity and stop the spread of death.” He delivers a detailed account of what he calls his “kidnapping” from a palace surrounded by heavily armed “white men.” He refers to the leader of a massive slave insurrection of l791, Toussaint L'Ouverture, a national hero who died in a French prison. Aristide spoke from the Central African Republic where he has been under a virtual house arrest in the days since he was delivered from Port-au-Prince on a U.S. plane. The address was recorded by a Haitian radio producer known to Aristide for some 20 years and broadcast Friday, exclusively on Pacifica Radio’s Flashpoints News Magazine based at KPFA .

[MrPrax]

8. Oh he was kidnapped...

Maybe that wasn't the plan, but the situation was deteriorating quickly for the fascist 'freedom fighters' and their paymasters...

Aristide put an urgent call into the OAS and both Cuba and Venezsuala were marshalling reinforcements...some reports had Cuban troops only 8 hours from touchdown and Chevaz's troop contribution within a day--

The request was snowballing rapidly as more regional actors were going to respond to Haiti's request as they are required under the OAS agreement...

[daleo]

9. When's the Haiti election?

I am sure Bush won't mind if Aristide runs for president, will he? I mean there will be an election, won't there?

[htuttle]

10. He wrote the original so-called 'letter of resignation' in Creole

He thought he was writing a press release, and he was explaining to Haitians, and his supporters in particular, that he was being forced to leave the country against his will.

When they translated it into English, they changed the tone of the letter, in that his 'being forced to leave' was now meant to mean he was leaving on his own accord (but forced to leave by events).

The US Marines that showed up at his residence stated that they would not protect him or his family from the armed mob of criminals that was supposedly right outside. They were not (the criminals were quite a distance away at that point).

The US government also told Aristide's US bodyguards (hired by the Govt of Haiti) that they had to pull their protection shortly before this. New bodyguards were to arrive, but never did. That left him and his family entirely without protection from the (provably) US IRI funded criminal mob.

Finally, the US Marines then told him they were going to go to a press conference, so he got in their vehicles, but they drove him to the airport and put him on a plane to the C.A.R. instead.

This whole story is a rehash of the 'legend' they spun back in 2004. It was disproven back then, in Congressional hearings held by the CBC no less, but they assume we've forgotten. We live in the 'United States of Amnesia', as Gore Vidal says.

[struggle4progress]

11. 18 shot dead in Haiti

Port-Au-Prince - At least 18 people died in shootings on Thursday and Friday around Haiti's capital Port-au-Prince, a police source said.

Thirteen people were killed late on Thursday by armed individuals in the Eternal City slum neighbourhood of the capital, a police officer said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Some 20 others were wounded by gun shots, and three houses were torched, as armed individuals opened fire on youths who had set up a security brigade to fight crime in their area.

Five people, believed to be supporters of ousted president Jean Bertrand Aristide, were also killed in exchanges of fire with police in the poor district of Saline, the source said.

http://www.news24.com/News24/World/News/0,6119,2-10-1462_1668234,00.html