Caribbean Press on Haiti

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Jamaica

CARICOM to outline stance on ex-president's departure today
published: Wednesday | March 3, 2004
By Leonardo Blair, Staff Reporter

CHAIRMAN OF the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), Prime Minister P.J. Patterson, said yesterday that ousted Haitian leader Jean-Bertrand Aristide is 'safe and sound' and was still being housed in the Central African Republic.

Mr. Patterson spoke with reporters after more than five hours of talks with regional leaders and diplomatic representatives of the 15-member CARICOM during an emergency meeting at Jamaica House.

He explained that the ousted President spoke with CARICOM leaders by telephone and assured everyone in attendance that he was in good health. "We had very constructive discussions during the course of the meeting. The heads of government spoke with President Aristide. He assured us that he is in good physical and mental health," said Mr. Patterson.

The Prime Minister said that contact was also made with South African President Thabo Mbeki, who informed the leaders that he had just returned from a Summit of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) in Tripoli, Libya and the OAU had endorsed the CARICOM Plan of Action for Haiti.



http://www.jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20040303/lead/lead1.html
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A frightening precedent
published: Wednesday | March 3, 2004

NOTHING SHORT of a full and transparent investigation into the circumstances surrounding the departure of former Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide from office Sunday morning will be enough to discredit allegations that Mr. Aristide was the victim of a U.S.-inspired and executed coup d'etat. The implications of the allegations must be frightening to every self-respecting and law-abiding citizen of this region.

The exiled Haitian leader asserts that he was forced out by American military forces against his will. The U.S. has denied this. The Prime Minister of Jamaica and Chairman of CARICOM, P.J. Patterson, has quite rightly reserved judgment until he has further and better particulars. But Mr. Patterson did question whether the reported resignation of Mr. Aristide 'was truly voluntary.' He went on to put in stark terms the implications of the removal of Mr. Aristide from office.

The senior CARICOM Prime Minister said the circumstances set "a dangerous precedent for democratically-elected governments anywhere and everywhere." We agree with him.

Mr. Aristide was the democratically-elected President of Haiti. Despite persistent claims by his opponents that the 2000 elections, which saw him return to power, were flawed, none were able to argue convincingly that his was not the will of the Haitian people.



More:
http://www.jamaicagleaner.com/gleaner/20040303/cleisure/cleisure1.html
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Bahamas

Aristide to Christie: 'I was forced out'
Bilateral relations on hold
By MINDELL SMALL, Guardian Staff Reporter

Prior to departing the capital Tuesday for an emergency CARICOM meeting in Jamaica, Prime Minister Perry Christie said he spoke to Haitian said he spoke to Haitian president Jean-Bertrand Aristide and was told the former leader was forced out of office.

Mr. Christie is expected to return to the capital today and outline the details of the Kingston meeting, which was aimed at discussing the ramifications of Aristide's reported resignation, Haiti's future role in CARICOM and bilateral relations between The Bahamas and that country.

He said there were conflicting reports of the events surrounding the departure of the ex-leader from Haiti, with Aristide saying he was forced out while the Americans say he was not. Mr. Christie indicated that the Americans provided all of the documentary evidence of the resignation and "their" account on what took place.

"All we know is that at 8 p.m. on Saturday evening, the foreign minister of Jamaica spoke to president Aristide and at that stage he had no intention of leaving. Throughout that day and the day before he had declared to me he had no intention of leaving... he would die first. And so on the face of it there is, I suppose, we are in a position to presume that certain things took place that might not have been consistent with his volunteering to go," he said.



More:
http://www.thenassauguardian.com/national_local/318309337909178.php
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Barbados

Urgent call for international peacekeeping force in Haiti
Web Posted - Wed Mar 03 2004
By Dorian Bryan

A call has come for a United Nations peacekeeping force to be deployed in Haiti, to deal with the potential for disaster. Following on the heels of the “forced” resignation of Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, Barbadians have added their voices to the issue.

In a joint statement released to the Press from the Clement Payne Movement and the Pan Caribbean Congress, prior to the shock resignation of Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide on Sunday, CARICOM was called upon to make its collective voice heard on the issue.

“The nations of CARICOM must now therefore exert themselves and urgently seek another solution to the crises in Haiti that does not depend upon the UN or the OAS. Such a solution must be based on the undeniable fact that Haiti holds a place of special significance within both the Pan-African family of nations of the Caribbean and Latin America. Haiti, after all, was pivotal in both the destruction of the international system of enslavement of African peoples and the destruction of the system of European colonialism in Latin America and the Caribbean,” it said.

The call has come when rebel forces have made a triumphant entry into the Haitian capital, Port-au-Prince. Ousted leader Jean-Bertrand Aristide has been exiled and, at last reports, was in the Central African Republic. French authorities who have been at the forefront of calls for Aristide to step down, according to reports, have stationed French soldiers to act as guards for the deposed leader.



http://www.barbadosadvocate.com/NewViewNewsleft.cfm?Record=16759
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Guyana

Caricom wants UN to probe Aristide ouster
-Haiti's membership for review
Thursday, March 4th 2004

Caricom leaders are calling for a United Nations investigation into the circumstances that led to Jean-Bertrand Aristide relinquishing the presidency of Haiti.

The call was contained in a statement that was issued following a two-day emergency summit in Kingston, Jamaica.

A Reuters report yesterday said that Caricom Heads of Government also said they would meet again to discuss Haiti's continued membership while sending a message "that no action should be taken to legitimise the rebel forces nor should they be included in any interim government."

They said the events that led to the flight of Aristide promote the unconstitutional removal of duly elected persons from office. They also said it sets a dangerous precedent for democratically elected governments everywhere. They called for the immediate return to democratic rule, while saying that they would not be part of the United Nations multinational peacekeeping force.



http://www.stabroeknews.com/index.pl/article_general_news?id=4166426
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PPP says Aristide's removal blow to democracy
Thursday, March 4th 2004
The PPP says the removal of Haitian President Jean Bertrand Aristide is undoubtedly a blow to democracy in this region specifically, and the world at large.

The party in a press release expressed deep concern at the turn of events in Haiti, adding that Aristide had "made all the concessions that were reasonable to bring about a solution but they were not accepted."

The PPP noted that Aristide was adamant that he would not leave until his constitutional term was completed in 2006 and he was now claiming that he had been kidnapped. "This is very serious and needs to be totally clarified."

According to the PPP, "the countries with the capacity to intervene on the side of the democratically-elected government lost an opportunity to defend democracy and the rule of law by failing to do so."



http://www.stabroeknews.com/index.pl/article_general_news?id=4166416
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Region's women say `no' to CARICOM troops in Haiti
Rickey Singh

BRIDGETOWN - Women of the Caribbean Community, a number of them involved in national organisations across the region, have strongly denounced the coup against President Jean Bertrand Aristide,and they want the leaders of CARICOM, who were winding up their meeting in Kingston, Jamaica yesterday, to refuse to commit Caribbean troops in Haiti, in view of the circumstances of the removal of President Aristide from power.

In a statement being circulated yesterday for additional signatures and released to the regional media, the women, including from Barbados, Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, Cuba, Anguilla and of the American Diaspora, have made five demands:

1. Demand that President and First Lady Aristide be free to travel where they want to and to speak so that the world can hear directly from them.
2. Condemn acts of violence against the people of Haiti, where as in any armed conflict, women and children bear the highest price, including in sexual violence;
3. Support the bringing to justice of those who are committing violence and other atrocities against the Haitian people, including by coup leaders, and call for the convicted criminal among the coup leaders to serve their terms;
4. Oppose the return by the US Government of Haitian refugees who are fleeing violence, including the violence of poverty imposed on them by the US and who are bound to face even greater violence upon their return to Haiti; and to
5. Insist on the sovereignty of the people of Haiti and Venezuela, who must be in charge of their own affairs without outside interference".



http://www.guyanachronicle.com/features.html#Anchor-13274
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Trinidad and Tobago

Caribbean troops to stay away, for now
By RICKEY SINGH
Thursday, March 4th 2004

BRIDGETOWN-Caricom Heads of Government have decided against participating in the current multinational interim military force in Haiti that involves the USA, France and Canada, authorised by the UN Security Council-after the forced resignation of Jean-Bertrand Aristide.

The Community's heads of government, in concluding their emergency summit yesterday in Jamaica, have however signalled their intention to participate in a follow-up "stabilisation" international peace-keeping force, as approved by the UN Security Council, expected to be operational in three months time.

The Caricom leaders did not announce suspension of Haiti's membership in the Community, a possibility some of them had indicated before the emergency summit that got underway in Kingston around 3 p.m. on Tuesday and lasted for some five hours before an adjournment to yesterday.



http://www.trinidadexpress.com/index.pl/article_news?id=16149874
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Caricom: UN must probe Aristide ouster
Thursday, March 4th 2004

Caricom leaders who met in emergency session in Jamaica say the reports surrounding the departure of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide from Haiti are contradictory and require no less than an investigation under the auspices of the United Nations which they hope would "clarify the circumstances leading to the relinquishing of the presidency of Haiti by president Aristide".

Caricom chairman Jamaica Prime Minister PJ Patterson says from all that is on the table now, it is clear Aristide did not leave Haiti of his own free will but he stopped short of saying he was kidnapped, insisting that up to Saturday evening when Aristide spoke with the prime minister of the Bahamas he was firm in his decision not to abandon office.

Aristide claims he was kidnapped and the US says he left of his own free but according to Patterson, "no matter how you define voluntary I can't see a situation in which you are being told that rebel forces are surrounding your capital... you are holed up in the palace or wherever you happen to be... where you have sought support from the international community and that has not been forthcoming.. where you have asked specifically for protection for your life the response is unfavourable. I can't see in those circumstances where a resignation can possibly be described as voluntary".

Asked why Aristide was not offered asylum in Antigua, the first country where the plane stopped after it left Haiti on Sunday, Patterson noted that Aristide did not know he was in Antigua and so was not given the opportunity to make a request for asylum. In fact, what Caricom leaders investigations found shocked them.. They were told that when the plane landed in Antigua no one was allowed to leave the aircraft and declaration forms handed to customs officials said there were no passengers on board.

"Those on board were not regarded as passengers but cargo, I leave that for you to determine", Patterson said.



http://www.trinidadexpress.com/index.pl/article_news?id=16149875
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Haiti’s rebel leader reveals plan to arrest PM
Neptune evacuated by helicopter

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti: Rebel leader Guy Philippe yesterday declared himself the new chief of Haiti’s military, which was disbanded by ousted president Jean-Bertrand Aristide, and said he would arrest Prime Minister Yvon Neptune. “The country is in my hands!” Philippe announced on Radio Signal FM. He summoned 20 police commanders to meet with him Tuesday and warned that if they failed to appear he would arrest them. US Marines guarded Neptune’s office in Petionville suburb, where Philippe was headed with hundreds of supporters in convoy impeded by adoring and cheering crowds who walked alongside. Local radio reported that Neptune was evacuated by helicopter. His whereabouts were not immediately known, and it was unclear if US or French Marines would try to protect him. Neptune is a top member of Aristide’s Lavalas party and his former presidential spokesman.

In a phone call to an AP reporter, Philippe said he intended to arrest Neptune on corruption charges. With the abrupt departure of Aristide on Sunday, the rebels appeared to be taking advantage of a power vacuum, even as the United States and France beefed up their military presence in the Caribbean country. Shortly before Philippe announced his intentions in a call to an AP reporter, he appeared on the second-floor balcony of the colonnaded former army headquarters as hundreds of cheering onlookers stood outside. A burly rebel standing next to Philippe urged them to accompany the rebel chief to Neptune’s house. “Arrest Neptune!” the crowd chanted. Speaking in Washington, Assistant US Secretary of State Roger Noriega dismissed Philippe’s power to do much of anything. “He is not in control of anything but a ragtag band of people,” Noriega told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

The buildup of the international presence in Haiti will make Philippe’s role “less and less central in Haitian life. And I think he will probably want to make himself scarce,” Noriega said. “We have sent that message to him. He obviously hasn’t received it,” Noriega said. But Philippe, who arrived in Port-au-Prince in a rebel convoy on Monday, apparently plans on transforming his fighters into a reconstituted Haitian army, which Aristide disbanded in 1995. Execution-style killings continued in the seaside, fetid capital. At least one more body showed up Tuesday on streets still littered with charred barricades set up by militant Aristide supporters who had rampaged and looted the capital before he fled. A preteen boy with a bullet hole in the head lay by a market square. Residents said he may have been shot for looting.

Looting, meanwhile, continued at the seaport, even though US Marines were patrolling the area. More than 100 people died in the three-week rebellion and reprisal killings that, combined with pressure from the United States and France, led Aristide to flee. Politicians and rebels in Port-au-Prince have made no public comment on Aristide’s charges Monday that the United States forced him out of power — charges strongly denied by US officials. Philippe, flanked by other rebel leaders and senior officers of Haiti’s police force, announced to reporters “I am the chief,” then clarified, “the military chief.” He reiterated that “I am not interested in politics,” indicating he was not looking to install another military dictatorship in Haiti. Philippe said he was ready to follow the orders of interim president Boniface Alexandre, the chief justice of the Supreme Court who was installed on Sunday. As if he would disarm if asked, he said, “We will.” Chile said it was sending 120 special forces to Haiti today, the first part of a contingent of 300 Chileans to join an international security force authorised Sunday by the UN Security Council.



More:
http://www.newsday.co.tt/stories.php?article_id=14539
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Caricom leaders tight-lipped on Haiti

Up until late last night there was no official word on Haiti from inside the conference room as Caricom leaders remained huddled behind closed doors in Kingston, Jamaica where they met to discuss, in emergency session, the Haitian crisis. And conflicting reports continued to surround the ouster of Haitian president Jean Bertrand Aristide. Officials from the 15-member Caribbean Community have expressed concern following Aristide’s claim that he was forcibly removed Sunday by US forces and put on a plane to Africa — a charge the US has flatly denied.

“If he was forced to leave, then it was a coup d’etat, and in our region we don’t tolerate coups d’etat,” declared Guyana president Bharat Jagdeo. Caribbean Secretary-General, Edwain Carrington said: “This is a very difficult period for us and I hope we come through this without any lasting damage to Caricom.” Asked if leaders would consider suspending Haiti, Trinidad and Tobago’s Prime Minister, Patrick Manning said, “we’re not ruling it out.” Haiti joined Caricom as a full member in 2002. No country has ever been suspended from the grouping which was established in 1973. Caricom chairman, Prime Minister Percival Patterson said he would have “great difficulty” holding talks with rebel leaders should they form part of Haiti’s new government.

Yesterday’s summit was attended by the following leaders, who are seated from left: Trinidad and Tobago’s Foreign Affairs Minister, Knowlson Gift; Prime Minister Patrick Manning; Bahamas Foreign Minister Frederick Mitchell; Bahamas Prime Minister Perry Christie; Jamaica’s Prime Minister Percival Patterson, the current chairman of Caricom; Caricom secretary general, Edwin Carrington; Caricom assistant secretary general, Colin Granderson; St Lucia’s Prime Minister, Kenny Anthony, and Barbados’ Prime Minister Owen Arthur.



More:
http://www.newsday.co.tt/stories.php?article_id=14539
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Haiti

Haiti's Lawyer: U.S. Is Arming Anti-Aristide Paramilitaries
Friday, Febebruary 27, 2004, 13:05:03

The US lawyer representing the government of Haiti charged today that the US government is directly involved in a military coup attempt against the country's democratically elected President, Jean-Bertrand Aristide. Ira Kurzban, the Miami-based attorney who has served as General Counsel to the Haitian government since 1991, said that the paramilitaries fighting to overthrow Aristide are being backed by Washington.

"I believe that this is a group that is armed by, trained by, and employed by the intelligence services of the United States," Kurzban told the national radio and TV program Democracy Now!. "This is clearly a military operation, and it's a military coup."

"There's enough indications from our point of view, at least from my point of view, that the United States certainly knew what was coming about two weeks before this military operation started," Kurzban said. "The United States made contingency plans for Guantanamo."

If a direct US connection is proven, it will mark the second time in just over a decade that Washington has been involved in a coup in Haiti.



More:
http://news.uhhp.com/article.php?ch=1&id=1077908703.846583
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Black U.S. Lawmakers Prod Bush on Haiti
Thursday, Febebruary 26, 2004, 08:52:53

The last time democracy fell apart in Haiti, black Democrats launched a very public campaign to get the Clinton administration to return Jean-Bertrand Aristide to power.

As Aristide's rule again nears collapse, the same players are stepping up pressure again - only now it's on the Bush administration. And they are using different tactics. Rather than sending protesters into the streets, they're buttonholing top officials and showing up at President Bush's doorstep on short notice to urge that democratic rule be preserved in Haiti.

"This is an urgent moment calling for urgent action," Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., said Wednesday after he notified Bush's top aides that members of the Congressional Black Caucus would pay an impromptu visit to the White House.

It is unclear whether the Democrats will succeed this time.



More:
http://news.uhhp.com/article.php?ch=1&id=1077807173.537465
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An X-Ray of Haiti’s “Armed Opposition”
The following background on Haiti’s “rebel” leaders was compiled by the London-based Haiti Support Group.



Louis Jodel Chamblain
Chamblain was joint leader - along with CIA operative Emmanuel “Toto” Constant - of the Front révolutionnaire pour l’avancement et le progrès haïtien, (Revolutionary Front for Haitian Advancement and Progress) known by its acronym - FRAPH - which phonetically resembles the French and Creole words for ‘to beat’ or ‘to thrash’. FRAPH was formed by the military authorities who were the de facto leaders of the country during the 1991-94 military regime, and was responsible for numerous human rights violations before the 1994 restoration of democratic governance.

Guy Philippe
Guy Philippe is a former member of the FAD’H (Haitian Army). During the 1991-94 military regime, he and a number of other officers received training from the US Special Forces in Equador, and when the FAD’H was dissolved by Aristide in early 1995, Philippe was incorporated into the new National Police Force.

Ernst Ravix
According to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights report on Haiti, dated 7 September 1988, FAD’H Captain Ernst Ravix, was the military commander of Saint Marc, and head of a paramilitary squad of “sub-proletariat youths” who called themselves the Sans Manman (Motherless Ones). In May 1988, the government of President Manigat tried to reduce contraband and corruption in the port city of Saint Marc, but Ravix, the local Army commander, responded by organising a demonstration against the President in which some three thousand residents marched, chanted, and burned barricades. Manigat removed Ravix from his post, but after Manigat’s ouster, he was reinstated by the military dictator, Lt. Gen. Namphy.

Jean Tatoune
Jean Pierre Baptiste, alias “Jean Tatoune”, first came to prominence as a leader of the anti-Duvalier mobilisations in his home town of Gonaives in 1985. For some years he was known and respected for his anti-Duvalierist activities but during the 1991-94 military regime he emerged as a local leader of FRAPH.

Jean-Baptiste Joseph
Joseph is a former Haitian Army sergeant who, following the disbanding of the FAD’H in 1995, headed an association of former FAD’H members.



More:
http://www.haiti-progres.com/eng02-25.html

[althecat]

1. Awesome work Bigrtree.. thanks...

[whatelseisnew]

2. nice collection of sources- thanks (n/t)

[seemslikeadream]

3. Thanks bigtree

for taking the time.

[bigtree]

4. kick

Sorry some of the links are broken. Try lifting the the main part of the address and pasting it. The sources are good.

[tedzbear]

5. Kick!

Thanks!

:bounce:

[bigtree]

6. Kick to keep the spotlight on Haiti

Bush Coup II

[newyawker99]

7. kick

:kick: