Aristide says he was abducted by US soldiers

WASHINGTON: Jean-Bertrand Aristide, ousted as Haitian President on Sunday, told US lawmakers and other contacts by telephone yesterday that he was abducted by US soldiers and left his homeland against his will. Washington immediately denied this, saying Aristide had agreed to step down and leave his country. “It’s complete nonsense,” White House spokesman Scott McClellan told reporters. “We took steps to protect Mr Aristide, we took steps to protect his family and they departed Haiti. It was Mr Aristide’s decision to resign,” he said.

US officials said that after intensive consultation between US officials and Aristide on Saturday, he had signed a letter of resignation. Republican Charles Rangel and Randall Robinson, the former head of the black lobbying group TransAfrica, said in separate interviews with CNN that Aristide called them from the Central African Republic, where he is in temporary exile. Robinson, speaking from the Caribbean island of St Kitts, said Aristide had telephoned him on a cell phone yesterday morning from a room in the Central African Republic, where he said he was being guarded by African and French soldiers. “The president said to me that he had been abducted from his home by about 20 American soldiers in full battle gear with automatic weapons and put on a plane” on Sunday morning, Robinson said. “Across the aisle from him and Mrs Aristide sat the American soldier who apparently was the commander of the contingent. They were not told where they were going, nor were they allowed to make any phone calls before they left the house or on the plane,” he said.

He said Aristide had told him the plane made two stops before landing in the Central African Republic and that the Americans had instructed them not to raise the blinds to look out when the plane was on the ground. “Not until they arrived did the president learn where he was,” Robinson said. “He said to me twice before he had to get off the phone, ‘Tell the world that it’s a coup. That American soldiers abducted (me).’” Rangel, a Democratic member of the House (of Representatives) from New York, said he heard a similar account from Aristide by telephone. Aristide told him he was “disappointed that the international community had let him down, that he was kidnapped, that he resigned under pressure.”  Maxine Waters, a Democrat from California and like Rangel a member of the congressional black caucus, also said she had heard by telephone from Aristide that he had been kidnapped, a spokeswoman for Waters said.

Caricom chairman:

Aristide’s ouster dangerous

CARICOM chairman PJ Patterson was yesterday reported as saying that the ousting of Haiti’s president Jean-Bertrand Aristide was a “dangerous precedent” for the removal of democratically elected governments and Caricom appeared to be on a collision course with the US and United Nations, over the sanctioning of a peace-keeping force for Haiti. A report in the Jamaica Observer said Aristide’s resignation stemmed from intense pressure from the US, Canada and France. 

The report added that Caricom leaders, who are scheduled to meet today in Jamaica on the issue, were questioning how “truly voluntary” Aristide’s resignation was, especially after the capture of half of the country by insurgents and the “failure of the international community to provide the requisite support, despite the appeals of Caricom.” Patterson was quoted as saying, “the removal of president Aristide in these circumstances sets a dangerous precedent for democratically-elected governments anywhere and everywhere, as it promotes the removal of duly elected persons from office by the power of rebel forces.”

Patterson added that at no time was Caricom’s Action Plan “predicated on the unconstitutional removal of president Aristide from office.” The Caricom initiative entailed Aristide remaining in office for the remaining two years of his term, but would share power with the formal Opposition while the country prepares for new election. The Observer said the US, Canada and France initially supported the Caricom plan but backed away from it and put pressure on Aristide to resign, essentially adopting the position of the Opposition. Patterson dismissed suggestions that Caricom was part of a plan, or was in consultation or had subscribed to the removal of President Aristide from office. He said Caricom could not support the removal of the constitutionally elected president by unconstitutional means.

The US Ambassador at the UN, John Negroponte, had counted Caricom among a group including the US, Canada, France, Brazil and Chile, that had drafted a resolution for adoption by the UN Security Council. Meanwhile, Secretary general of the Organisation of American States (OAS), Cesar Gaviri, in a statement on Sunday following Aristide’s departure, said the OAS supported the new constitutional government of Haiti under Justice Boniface Alexandre. Alexandre called on Haitians “to work together to restore public order and to strengthen the institutions of state, and to search for the greater good, which is the development of the country and the satisfaction of the people’s needs.”

Outgoing ACS head: Haiti, we’re sorry

By Clint Chan Tack

“HAITI, WE’RE SORRY.” This was the silent apology issued yesterday by outgoing Association of Caribbean States (ACS) Secretary-General, Prof Norman Girvan for the ACS’ inability to help its strife-torn member nation. Addressing a ceremony at the ACS’ Port-of-Spain headquarters to install his successor, Dr Ruben Silie Valdez of the Dominican Republic, Girvan also lamented that the ACS was unable to help three other member nations — Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados, Guyana and Suriname — resolve their ongoing maritime disputes.

Girvan told Dr Valdez that he is assuming leadership of the ACS at “a testing time with one ACS state in an acute political state and several other member states are involved in rather public disputes over maritime boundaries and associated rights.” However Girvan explained: “As of now, the ACS has no political mandate to deal with these issues. It is all under the jurisdiction of other bodies including Caricom, the Organisation of American States, United Nations and the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea. This may change in the future if our political leaders so decide.”  Girvan stressed that “as it seeks to respond to the demands for greater political relevance, the ACS will also need to weigh the risks of being politically divisive or of being drawn into internal political controversies and of becoming involved in time-consuming or energy-sapping turf wars with other regional and international organisations.”

Foreign Affairs Minister Knowlson Gift said there were “unprecedented challenges” facing the ACS at this time but “the spirit of the Caribbean” is strong. Valdez described his new challenges as ACS secretary-general as “it is one thing to call the devil but it is another thing to wait for him to come.” He apologised for the absence of Dominican Republic Secretary of State in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Dr Francisco Guerro Prats due to the current state of affairs in neighbouring Haiti. The Dominican Republic has sealed its border with Haiti to prevent a flood of refugees entering its territory.

Bush administration denies forcing Aristide’s retreat

WASHINGTON: The White House, military and diplomatic officials yesterday denied allegations that Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide was kidnapped by US forces eager for him to resign and be spirited into exile. With US military forces already on the ground in the Caribbean nation and more on the way, chief presidential spokesman Scott McClellan said, “It’s nonsense, and conspiracy theories do nothing to help the Haitian people move forward to a better, more free, more prosperous future.”

Defence Secretary Donald H Rumsfeld and Secretary of State Colin Powell joined the White House in denying that Aristide had been forced out by the United States. McClellan told reporters that Aristide left on his own free will. “We took steps to protect Mr Aristide and his family so they would not be harmed as they departed Haiti,” he said. Rumsfeld, at a Pentagon news conference, said he was involved in the diplomatic flurry preceding Aristide’s departure, and said “the idea that someone was abducted is inconsistent with everything I saw. I don’t believe that’s true, that he’s claiming that. I would be absolutely amazed if that were the case.” An African-American activist, Randall Robinson, said Aristide told him on the phone yesterday that he had been kidnapped at gunpoint by American soldiers and ousted in a US coup d’etat. Aristide said he was being held prisoner at the Renaissance Palace in Bangui, Central African Republic, Robinson said.

Rep Charles Rangel told CNN television that when he spoke with Aristide yesterday the exiled Haitian leader told him that the international community had let him down — “that he was kidnapped, that he resigned under pressure, that he was taken to a central African country.” Rep Maxine Waters told CNN that she talked on the phone with Aristide’s wife, Mildred, who said that Aristide was “forced to leave his home.” Waters said an embassy official told Aristide that he “had to go now — that if he didn’t go he would be killed and a lot of Haitians would be killed.” Powell said flatly, “He was not kidnapped. We did not force him on the airplane. He went on the plane willingly.” McClellan said Aristide’s aides had contacted the US ambassador to Haiti on Saturday and asked if Aristide would be given protection by the United States if he resigned. The ambassador consulted with Washington, then called Aristide’s aides and told them that if Aristide decided to resign, the United States “would facilitate his departure,” McClellan said. “And we did.”

The United States arranged for a plane to fly to Haiti to pick up Aristide, he said, adding that the aircraft arrived about 4.30 am, local time. Aristide went to the airport in the company of his own personal security guards, the spokesman said. Asked directly if Aristide left of his own free will, McClellan said, “Yes.” Gen Richard B Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said 800 to 1,000 Haitans had been returned to their country in recent days after being picked up trying to flee over the water. Aristide apparently reconsidered his initial decision not to step down after learning over the weekend that the United States would not protect him, a Bush administration official said on condition of anonymity. Guards from Aristide’s security team, employed by the San Francisco-based Steele Foundation, asked the US embassy in Port-au-Prince on Saturday whether they could count on American protection in the event of rebel hostilities at the presidential palace, the official said. Aristide’s guards were told that no such protection would be provided, the official said. Powell called former Rep Ron Dellums, whom Aristide hired as a Washington lobbyist, the official said, and told him that the United States had no plans to protect Aristide.

US to send 1,500-2,000 troops to Haiti

WASHINGTON: The United States plans to provide about 1,500 to 2,000 troops to serve in an international stability force totalling less than 5,000 troops in Haiti, Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said yesterday. President George W Bush on Sunday directed US Marines to lead an international force to restore order and stability to Haiti after President Jean-Bertrand Aristide resigned in the face of an armed rebellion and fled to Africa. During a Pentagon briefing, Rumsfeld said an international “interim” stability force in Haiti authorised by the United Nations “will probably be less than 5,000 in total,” with the US contribution what he described as “a small fraction of that.”

He said, “I don’t know what the number will be, but for the sake of argument, say 1,500 or 2,000, or less. But time will tell. We’ll have what’s needed.” The final number of US troops sent to Haiti will depend “on the facts on the ground” and on contributions from other countries, Rumsfeld said. The United States sent more than 20,000 troops to Haiti in 1994 to restore Aristide to power after he was toppled in a coup. Since then the Haitian military has been disbanded, with security put in the hands of a 4,000-strong police force. Rumsfeld’s estimate of the US troop contribution was larger than a number mentioned earlier in the day by Secretary of State Colin Powell, who said the US military contingent would number “in the hundreds, maybe a little more than 1,000 or so, but it is not a large force.”