Aristide Kidnapped

[there was already admission that the U.S. was involved in his flight out
of Port-au-Prince, the possibility of kidnap isn't much of a stretch.
sounds sorta familiar.  maybe he can be returned and there will be footage
of the whole thing captured by a irish film crew and it will be turned
into a documentary called "the revolution will not be televised".
"History repeats itself, first as tragedy [and then as] farce."  and as
Vicki Mercer noted, "These guys are extremely dangerous."  check out
democracy now who--actually broke the story.]

Ousted Haitian President Aristide claims he was ``kidnapped''
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/8078434.htm
By JIM DEFEDE, CAROL ROSENBERG AND MARTIN MERZER

Ousted Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide claims he ''did not
resign'' and was ''kidnapped'' by U.S. diplomatic and military officials,
U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters told The Herald on Monday.

White House spokesman Scott McClellan called the claim ``complete
nonsense.''

''It was Mr. Aristide's decision to resign,'' he said.

The claims relayed by Waters and others came as rebel leader Guy Philippe
and his forces rolled unopposed into Port-au-Prince. Many people welcomed
them with open arms. No new violence was reported.

At the same time, hundreds of newly arrived U.S. Marines and French and
Canadian officers fortified their positions in the capital, which include
the airport, the seaport and the presidential National Palace.

Waters, a Democrat from California and a long-time supporter of Aristide,
said she spoke with the now former president of Haiti on Monday morning.
After fleeing from Haiti early Sunday, Aristide landed overnight in the
Central African Republic.

''The world must know it was a coup,'' Waters quoted Aristide as saying.
``That I was kidnapped. That I was forced out. That's what happened. I did
not resign. I did not go willingly. I was forced to go.''

Aristide made no such claim during a brief public statement when he
arrived in Bangui, the capital of the Central African Republic.

During a radio broadcast from Bangui, he said that the rebels who forced
him to flee had ``chopped down the tree of peace, but it will grow again,
as its roots are Louverturian.''

That was a reference to Toussaint Louverture, who led a revolt of black
slaves in 1791 and established a free state on the island of Hispaniola,
now shared by Haiti and the Dominican Republic.

A resignation letter reportedly signed by Aristide was read to the world
media in Port-au-Prince on Sunday.

Randall Robinson, former head of TransAfrica and a longtime Aristide
friend, also spoke with Aristide and the Aristide's wife on Monday and
relayed a similar account. He said Aristide was ''fairly impassioned'' and
``said he did not resign.''

''He said he was taken at gunpoint,'' Robinson said. ``Now I don't know
that hands were laid on him. I think when you have big guns, the hands
aren't necessary, you get the point.''

It was not completely clear if Aristide was using the term ''kidnapped''
in the literal sense or metaphorically, but Robinson was inclined to take
the report literally.

''The point is he was taken against his will,'' Robinson said from his
home on the island of St. Kitts. ``That he was clear about, so I don't
think it was the metaphorical usage.''

U.S. Ambassador James Foley said in Port-au-Prince on Sunday that Aristide
was told Saturday night and Sunday morning that the rebels were advancing,
his security could not be guaranteed and he should strongly consider
signing a resignation letter and seeking asylum.

Other U.S. officials said they ''facilitated'' Aristide's departure by
arranging for a secure airplane and finding a country that would accept
him. They said Aristide realized that his shaky hold on power -- and his
own safety -- was threatened.

''For Aristide, it was coming down to leaving on a Lear jet or in a body
bag,'' one participant, requesting anonymity, told The Herald.

There were indications, however, that Aristide was misled about his
destination. He reportedly asked to be taken to South Africa, but ended up
instead in the Central African Republic.

Waters said Aristide was being held -- under guard by unspecified troops
-- in that nation's Palace of the Renaissance.

''He feels like he is in jail,'' Waters said.

She said she spoke with Aristide and his wife, Mildred.

'The first thing Mildred said was, `The coup d'etat is complete. It has
been completed' '' Waters told Herald columnist Jim DeFede.

''I talked to him and Mildred for about 15 minutes. He was anxious to get
the word out that he did not leave voluntarily, that he was kidnapped,
that he was forced out,'' Waters said.

She quoted Aristide as saying that Luis G. Moreno, deputy chief of mission
at the U.S. Embassy in Port-au-Prince, came to his home with other
diplomats and with U.S. Marines.

About 50 Marines were sent to the Haitian capital last week to, among
other things, protect U.S. diplomats as they moved around the city.

''They told him he had to leave and leave now or he and many Haitians
would be killed,'' Waters said. ``That Guy Phillipe and the old military
folks from FRAPH [a notoriously brutal paramilitary group] were on their
way to Port-au-Prince and the Marines would be with them [the rebels]. And
that many people would die.''

Moreno could not immediatedly be reached for comment.

She said Aristide told her five people were in the group carried into
exile. She identified them as Aristide, his wife, the president's brother,
Claudy Joseph, and two security people, one named Frantz Gabrielle and
another by the last name of Barteomy. Other reports said that Aristide's
brother-in-law rather than a brother was in the group.

She said he told her that the plane's first stop was Antigua and they
subsequently stopped at a military base. After another six-hour flight,
they arrived in the Central African Republic, he said.

Waters said Aristide sounded ``angry, stressed, determined, really
determined that people know he was kidnapped, that he did not go
willingly, that he was forced out.

''He did not say he was abused,'' she said. 'I specifically asked him
that, if he had been abused. He said, `No,' that they were very stern. He
said he was ordered. He used that word, 'ordered.' And 'forced.' And
'kidnapped.' Those are the words that he used.''

According to media reports from Africa, the government in the Central
African Republic said that, as ''a purely humanitarian'' gesture of
solidarity with the Haitian people, it had agreed to ``take in the former
president of the world's first black republic.''

The statement did not say how long Aristide would be welcome or where he
might go afterward.

Back in Port-au-Prince, the multinational forces numbered no more than 400
by Monday morning. They included 200 U.S. Marines, about 140 French police
and military forces and about 40 Canadian security forces.

The top officer on the ground was a battalion commander with the rank of
lieutenant colonel, said Raul Duany, spokesman for the Pentagon's Southern
Command in Miami. He declined to disclose the commander's name.

Hundreds more U.S. Marines were expected to arrive Monday, Duany said,
with the total U.S. contingent to number about 2,000.

The first landing force -- with M-16 assault rifles, grenade launchers and
a dozen HumVees with mounted 50-caliber machine guns -- would likely not
start patrols of Port-au-Prince until after an initial assessment in
consultation with the U.S. Embassy of the military requirements.

''I don't think we'll see any patrols going out to the city,'' Duany said
Monday morning. ``We need more personnel and a better definition of the
mission.''

The rules of engagement so far prohibited the Marines from talking with
the rebels, but did permit them to be in the National Palace, protecting
Alexandre Boniface, the Supreme Court chief justice who replaced Aristide
under Haiti's constitution.
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