Finding the truth about Aristide’s fate

One supposes that the least the Caribbean Community of Nations (CARICOM) can do now is call for an independent investigation as to whether former Haitian President, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, was pressured to resign and forced to leave Haiti. So far Caricom has done little but talk and issue a statement, a group of men almost impotent in the shadow of the great international nations who call the shots. They should have known this. They didn’t have to go to Jamaica at such great cost just to end up with a statement calling for an enquiry. They could just as easily have stayed at home and done the same thing.

We do however need to know the situation with respect to the report that when the aircraft taking President Aristide away from Haiti landed for refuelling in Antigua, the Customs declaration declared there were no passengers on board, only cargo. This is in direct conflict with an earlier report that President Aristide had been refused permission to land in Antigua by the Bird Government. What is the truth? Caricom’s response has come rather late in the day but it is a step in the right direction that we find out the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. The facts as we now know are that President Aristide, an elected leader, was forced out of office by a gang of thugs and that the international community failed to respond to his calls for help. It can even be assumed that those wishing Aristide out of office gave assistance to the Haitian opposition and the gangs of thugs on the rampage. International interests clearly knew exactly what was going on in Haiti and their strategy seemed to be one of playing not just a game of wait and see, but a behind the scenes game.

How else could the first small group of  US Marines and French forces be in Haiti mere hours before Aristide “resigned” and was flown out — against his will as he has told Caricom leaders? The Caricom leaders are right to insist that Aristide, if he so wishes, should be allowed to appear before any enquiry to give his side of the story. The only certain issue is that there should be a  wholly independent investigation conducted by the United Nations or some other independent body into charges by Aristide that he was pressured to resign and was kidnapped. CARICOM should discuss the charges and formulate a common approach to the UN, and they do not need to all go flying off to another meeting to do so.