Aristide Kidnapped by US Marines

Like Toussaint L'Ouverture by the French

According to Maxine Waters and Randall Robinson 

Sunday, February 29, 2004

Why has the Media Failed to Expose The Illegal Arrest of President  Jean-Bertrand Aristide by US Ambassador Foley and US Marines?

It has been reported on New York City Radio Station WBAI's Program "Democracy  Now", and from several independent sources (including an ABC cameraman, who

declined to name himself out of fear, and a guard whose was present at the Presidential Palace) that at approximately 5:30 AM Sunday Morning, US Ambassador James B. Foley accompanied with a contingent of US Marines entered the Haitian Presidential Palace and left with President Aristide in hand cuffs. To date, President Aristide has not been seen. 

This unfolding news raises serious questions regarding the major story coming out of Haiti that President Aristide resigned.

The Friends of Haiti questions why this kidnapping of a duly elected President has gone un-reported in the media. The Friends of Haiti challenges the US media in particular and the Western press in general to account for their lock step acceptance of the "official" US State Department's reporting of events in Haiti, which now clearly appears to be covering up a gross violation of the United States Constitution.

It should be remembered that what ever questions that have been raised about isolated election irregularities in Haiti's 2000 Presidential Elections, it was the stated position of the United States Government in July of 2003, as represented by then Ambassador Brian Dean Curran "The United States accepts President Aristide as the constitutional president of Haiti for his term of office ending in 2006."

It would now seem that the Bush Administration decided at some point to violate international law in the interest of known anti-democratic criminals and murders who have a long history of bloodshed against the Haitian People.

Source: Friends of Haiti / 456 Nostrand Avenue / Brooklyn NY 11216 / Phone (718) 398-1766

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PRESIDENT ARISTIDE SAYS 'I WAS KIDNAPPED'
'TELL THE WORLD IT IS A COUP'

Monday, March 1st, 2004

On Democracy Now this morning while Amy Goodman was interviewing  Congressperson Maxine Waters, the congressperson receive a phone call from Aristede, the former Haitian president said he was kidnapped by US military forces and forced out of Haiti in a coup, clearly a different story than the one appearing in the mainstream press the Aristede has "fled" his country.. Clearly this is a violation of  international law and Mr. Bush needs to be held accountable for overthrowing a democratically elected government. Please ask everyone to contact their national representatives and media and demand an investigation into this crime committed by the US government.

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Multiple sources that just spoke with Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide told Democracy Now! that Aristide says he was "kidnapped" and taken by force to the Central African Republic. Congressmember Maxine Waters said she received a call from Aristide at 9am EST. "He's surrounded by military. It's like he is in jail, he said. He says he was kidnapped," said Waters. She said he had been threatened by what he called US diplomats. According to Waters, the diplomats reportedly told the Haitian president that if he did not leave Haiti, paramilitary leader Guy Philippe would storm the palace and Aristide would be killed. According to Waters, Aristide was told by the US that they were withdrawing Aristide's US security.

TransAfrica founder and close Aristide family friend Randall Robinson also received a call from the Haitian president early this morning and confirmed Waters account. Robinson said that Aristide "emphatically" denied that he had resigned. "He did not resign," he said. "He was abducted by the United States in the commission of a coup." Robinson says he spoke to Aristide on a cell phone that was smuggled to the Haitian president.

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AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now! I’m Amy Goodman. Congressmember Waters, can you tell us about the conversation you just had with Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide?

MAXINE WATERS: I most certainly can and he’s anxious for me to get the message out so people will understand. He is in the Central Republic of Africa at a place called the Palace of the Renaissance, and he’s not sure if that’s a house or a hotel or what it is and he is surrounded by military. It’s like in jail, he said. He said that he was kidnapped; he said that he was forced to leave Haiti. 

He said that the American embassy sent the diplomats; he referred to them as, to his home where they was led by Mr. Moreno. And I believe that Mr. Moreno is a deputy chief of staff at the embassy in Haiti and other diplomats, and they ordered him to leave. They said you must go NOW. He said that they said that Guy Phillipe and U.S. Marines were coming to Port-au-Prince; he will be killed, many Haitians will be killed, that they would not stop until they did what they wanted to do. He was there with his wife Mildred and his brother-in-law and two of his security people, and somebody from the Steel Foundation, and they’re all, there’s five of them that are there. 

They took them where-- they did stop in Antigua then they stopped at a military base, then they were in the air for hours and then they arrived at this place and they were met by five ministers of government. It’s a Francophone country, they speak French. And they were then taken to this place called the Palace of the Renaissance where they are being held and they are surrounded by military people. 

They are not free to do whatever they want to do. Then the phone clicked off after we had talked for about five--we talked maybe fifteen minutes and then the phone clicked off. But he, some of it was muffled in the beginning, at times it was clear. But one thing that was very clear and he said it over and over again, that he was kidnapped, that the coup was completed by the Americans that they forced him out. They had also disabled his American security force that he had around him for months now; they did not allow them to extend their numbers. 

To begin with they wanted them to bring in more people to provide security they prevented them from doing that and then they finally forced them out of the country. So that’s where his is and I said to him that I would do everything I could to get the word out. . . . that I heard it directly from him I heard it directly from his wife that they were kidnapped, they were forced to leave, they did not want to leave, their lives were threatened and the lives of many Haitians were threatened. And I said that we would be in touch with the State Department, with the President today and if at all possible we would try to get to him. We don’t know whether or not he is going to be moved. We will try and find that information out today.

AMY GOODMAN: Did President Aristide say whether or not he resigned?

MAXINE WATERS: He did not resign. He said he was forced out, that the coup was completed.

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RANDALL ROBINSON: The president called me on a cell phone that was slipped to him by someone - he has no land line out to the world and no number at which he can be reached. He is being held in a room with his wife and his sister's husband, who happened to be at the house at the time that the abduction occurred. The soldiers came in to the house and ordered them to use no phones and to come immediately. They were taken at gunpoint to the airport and put on a plane. 

His own security detachment was taken as well and put in a separate compartment of the plane. The president was kept with his wife with the soldiers with the shades of the plane down and when he asked where he was being taken, the soldiers told him they were under orders not to tell him that. He was flown first to Antigua, which he recognized, but then he was told to put the shades down again. They were on the ground there for two hours before they took off again and landed six hours later at another location again told to keep the shades down. 

At no time before they left the house and on the plane were they allowed to use a phone. Only when they landed the last time were they told that they were in the Central African Republic. Then taken to a room with a balcony. They do not know what the room is a part of, maybe a hotel, maybe some other kind of building, but it has a balcony and outside they can see that they are surrounded by soldiers. So that they have no freedom. 

The president asked me to tell the world that it is a coup, that they have been kidnapped. That they have been abducted. I have put in calls to members of congress asking that they demand that the president be given an opportunity to speak, that he be given a press conference opportunity and that people be given an opportunity to reach him by phone so that they can hear directly from him how he is being treated. But the essential point is clear. He did not resign. He was taken by force from his residence in the middle of the night, forced on to a plane, and taken away without being told where he was going. He was kidnapped. There's no question about it.

AMY GOODMAN: How does he actually know, Randall Robinson, how does president Aristide know that he is in the Central African Republic?

RANDALL ROBINSON: He was told that when he arrived. As a matter of fact there was some official reception of officials of that government at the airport when he arrived. But, you see, he still had and continues to have surrounding him American military.

Read more at Democracy Now!: http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=04/03/01/1521216