Aristide Lawyers Demand U.S. Prosecute "Kidnappers" Of Aristide

[Say_What]

<clips>

Lawyers representing Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide today are serving Secretary of State Gen. Colin Powell with papers asking that the US prosecute the people involved in what they call the kidnapping of Aristide and his wife Mildred, who is a US citizen. The lawyers are invoking the Multilateral Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Crimes Against Internationally Protected Persons.

The request that the United States fulfill its obligations under the Convention stems from what Aristide's lawyers call the intentional commission of internationally recognized crimes that were "part of a coup d'etat organized and implemented by officials of the Government of the United States of America to remove and replace the democratically-elected President of Haiti..." The demand specifically references the kidnapping of the Aristide while on board an aircraft belonging in whole or in part to the United States.

In a letter to Attorney General John Ashcroft, Aristide's lawyers said, "These criminal acts appear to have been carried out by U.S. government personnel acting under the orders of high-ranking United States government officials, including the United States Depute Charge de Mission in Haiti, Luis Moreno, and possibly Assistant Secretary of State Roger Noriega (Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs), Secretary of State Colin Powell and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld."

Aristide's lawyers are also calling on the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights to initiate a fact finding mission to Haiti to investigate what they say are summary executions and continued violence against Lavalas supporters.

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=04/03/09/1518238

[Rex]

1. So he is sending the papers to a man that might have been involved?

nt

[Just Me]

2. I wonder if the Bush administration pulled out of that one, too,...

,...after having pulled out of pretty much any other international law it feared being imposed upon its' lawless imperialistic endeavors? I can only hope that, the criminals missed one loophole!!!!

[DuctapeFatwa]

3. The US has decreed that it will kidnap and/or murder whom it chooses

when it chooses. The ball is in the rest of the world's court now.

[brads]

4. This is excellent

Hurray for Aristide and his lawyers! They have refused to be cowed by the Bush Admin and they are making sure this issue won't go away. The Bush admin is so blatantly in violation of international law on this one that I think it could be the issue that starts everything unraveling for the US Resident. Let's hope so...

[Say_What]

6. Welcome to DU brads

:hi:

[Say_What]

5. New Book: Haiti: A Slave Revolution 200 years after 1804

<clips>

The Haitian Revolution is a singular event in history. Never before or since has an enslaved people risen up, broken their chains, and established a new state. Haiti was a beacon of hope and inspiration to the enslaved Africans of the United States. Haiti's history has been turbulent, but not for the reasons given by mainstream historians. Racism underlies their charges that the first Black Republic lacks "democratic traditions and is prone to violence. Read full chapters from this important book http://www.iacenter.org/haiti/index.htm

[happyslug]

7. 1804-1862

Haiti was the SECOND free country in the new world. The US was first in 1776 (recognized by Britain in 1783) with Haiti being second in 1804. Despite this fact the US did NOT recognize Haiti till 1862. Why the delay? The South objected to recognizing a produce of a Slave revolt. In 1862 the south's objection no longer concern the Federal Government, the Federal Government was only concern to deny bases for South Blockade Runners AND bases for the US Navy stopping such blockade runners.

Thus in 1862 we recognize Haiti AND sent an ambassador to the second oldest Republic in the New World.