Haiti revolt spreads to new town.

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Haiti revolt spreads to new town.
9
Tue, 02-17-2004 - 8:52am

A rebellion by opponents of Haiti's embattled president has spread further with a new attack north of the capital.


 http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/3494447.stm


About 50 men attacked a police station in the town of Hinche, killing three people - one of them the police chief.

The rebels are now reported to control the town and two major roads leading into the north of the country.

France has raised the possibility of an international peace force being sent to Haiti, where the recent wave of unrest has left about 50 people dead.

"We have the capacity to intervene and... many friendly countries are ready to do so," Foreign Minister Dominique De Villepin said.

His comments followed an appeal by President Jean-Bertrand Aristide for the international community to help put down the rebellion which has seen armed opponents take over a string of towns in the north.

Neighbouring Dominican Republic has expressed alarm about the unrest, warning it could not cope on its own if there were a mass exodus of Haitians.

On Monday it closed its 360km (224 mile) border with French-speaking Haiti.


'Terrorists attack democracy'

Armed men demanding Mr Aristide's resignation took charge of Gonaives, the fourth-largest city, earlier this month.


Various groups have since taken over a string of other towns and repulsed a government attempt to retake Gonaives.

In an attempt to restore calm in the central town of Hinche, the police chief in the capital Port-au-Prince, about 130 km (80 miles) to the south-west, said reinforcements were being sent.

But reports from the town said local police had been forced out and were re-grouping 55km (35 miles) to the south.

The president, a former priest, is the target of growing pressure to step down from opposition politicians and armed rebel groups.

He has refused to give any details about plans to deal with the rebellion, except that he intended to use peaceful means.


"A group of terrorists are breaking democratic order," Mr Aristide told reporters on Monday.

"I have already asked and I will continue to ask the international community and prime ministers of the region to move faster on this issue."

Discontent has grown in Haiti since Mr Aristide's party won the 2000 elections which opponents accuse him of rigging.

The opposition refuse to take part in any elections unless the president steps down.

Aid gets through

On Monday, rebels escorted a Red Cross convoy carrying much-needed supplies including medical goods to Gonaives, where the unrest began on 5 February.


To keep the police and government supporters from retaking Gonaives, the rebels have pushed shipping containers blocking the highway leading to the town.

Although the rebels are thought to control about 11 towns and cities, their number is also thought to be less than that of Haiti's 5,000 police force.

However they have been joined by exiled paramilitary leaders and police.

"Our fight is for a better country. We are fighting for the presidency, we're fighting for the people, " said Guy Philippe, a former police chief who is accused of trying to organise a coup in 2002.


Rebel army tells Aristide to go.

Fears grow that Haiti could become a 'new Somalia', torn apart by gangs.


More.......


http://observer.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,6903,1148723,00.html

cl-Libraone





 


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Registered: 03-18-2000
Tue, 02-17-2004 - 2:40pm
France Considering Peacekeepers for Haiti.

Haiti's premier said his country was in the throes of a coup and appealed Tuesday for international help -- even as Washington and Paris stated reluctance to use force to stop the blood uprising.


In Paris, French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin called an emergency meeting Tuesday to weigh the risks of sending peacekeepers and how otherwise to help the impoverished island, a former colony that is home to 2,000 French citizens.


``Can we deploy a peacekeeping force?'' he asked on France-Inter radio, noting it ``is very difficult'' when a nation is in the midst of violence.


He said France had 4,000 troops in its Caribbean territories of Martinique and Guadeloupe trained in humanitarian work. ``We are in contact with all of our partners in the framework of the United Nations, which has sent a humanitarian mission to Haiti to see what is possible.''


Haiti Prime Minister Yvon Neptune made his plea for help a day after former soldiers joined the rebellion, seizing the key central city of Hinche, burning the police station, freeing prisoners -- and increasing the potential for a full-scale civil war.


Rebels also control most roads leading in and out of the Artibonite, home to almost 1 million people, and have isolated the north by chasing police from a dozen towns. At least 56 people have been killed.


More...........


http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-Haiti-Uprising.html

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Registered: 03-18-2000
Fri, 02-20-2004 - 9:16am

Multinational team will go to Haiti.


>"Officials from the United States, France, Canada, Caricom (the Caribbean Community) and the Organization of American States will make up the team, and ambassadors from those nations and groups will present the plan to the Haitian government and opposition.


The team will meet with President Jean-Bertrand Aristide's government and with the political opposition to follow up on the details of the plan, the official said.


Meanwhile, the State Department is warning U.S. citizens to leave Haiti "while commercial carriers are still operating on an uninterrupted schedule."


The rebellion first erupted February 5 in Gonaives and the rebels have been most active in the North. Former Aristide supporters have joined with their once sworn enemies -- paramilitary and military leaders who had supported the former military dictatorship -- to oust Aristide. These forces returned from exile in the Dominican Republic just a few days ago and are believed to be heavily armed.


Aristide vowed Thursday to die if necessary to save his country from what he called "terrorists."


His critics say his government is corrupt, and the opposition is calling for new elections.


"Haiti's security environment has been deteriorating as President Aristide has continued to politicize the Haitian National Police and used government resources to pay for violent gangs to attack opposition demonstrators," the State Department warning said."<


Complete story see link...........


http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/americas/02/19/haiti.revolt/index.html


Aristide rebuffs calls to step down.


US concerned the crisis will worsen if the president is forced out of office.


Article see link..........


http://www.bday.co.za/bday/content/direct/1,3523,1549191-6098-0,00.html

cl-Libraone~

 


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Registered: 03-18-2000
Sun, 02-29-2004 - 9:44am

Update:


Aristide leaves Haiti, U.S. administration official says.
State Department official: Multinational force likely to be sent.

http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/americas/02/29/haiti.revolt/index.html


Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide has left his embattled homeland under intense pressure from the United States and France, a senior U.S. administration official said Sunday.


U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell, French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin, Caribbean leaders and United Nations leaders worked overnight to resolve a standoff between Aristide and opposition forces demanding his ouster, State Department officials said.


Addressing questions about Haiti's immediate future, a U.S. State Department source told CNN Sunday that "it is safe to say a multinational force" will be sent there soon.


Militant rebels intent on removing Aristide from power had taken over most of the northern part of impoverished and embattled Caribbean country, and leaders of the movement said they had advanced to within 30 miles of the capital, Port-au-Prince.


Chaos erupted at the end of the week in Port-au-Prince, where looting and more violence was largely blamed on supporters of the president.


In 1990, Aristide became Haiti's first democratically elected president. He was overthrown in a 1991 coup, restored to power after intense pressure by U.S. officials in 1994 and won a new term in 2000 -- in elections his political opponents claim were fraudulent.


Word of Aristide's departure comes a day after the White House accused him of orchestrating the violence that has gripped the capital, Port-au-Prince.


"We condemn the violence in Haiti," a White House statement said. "Many are engaged in it. All should end their senseless looting and killing. ... This long-simmering crisis is largely of Mr. Aristide."


Aristide had vowed Saturday not to leave office before his term expires in 2006, even as the rebels seeking to drive him out of power advanced on the capital, Port-au-Prince.


Earlier in the week, the State Department had supported an arrangement under which Aristide would share power with his political opposition, but privately the United States had continued to distance itself from Aristide.


In Port-au-Prince, roadblocks were dismantled overnight and the streets Saturday morning appeared calmer than they had been Friday. But by Saturday afternoon, the looting and general disorder intensified.


Representatives of the U.S. and French embassies said they had no immediate plans to evacuate personnel. They urged embassy employees to remain in their homes until the situation eased.


"It's not an issue of safety," a senior State Department official said. "We're not going to shut down our mission because that's inconsistent with our desire to help Haitians solve this."


Rebels said they had advanced to within 30 miles of the capital, surrounding it with the aim of choking off supplies and ousting Aristide, whose election in 2000 they say was rigged.


A high-ranking police officer said Saturday that the police had been outnumbered Friday. It was not clear how much control they had regained Saturday.


Opportunities to flee the country were few. Two C-130 military aircraft landed at the capital's airport to evacuate foreign nationals.


Military helicopters from the Dominican Republic have been ferrying foreign nationals from the embassy to the neighboring country.


But the border with the Dominican Republic was sealed, and all commercial flights were suspended from the capital's sole airport.


The rebels -- and separately, Aristide's political opposition -- had accused his administration of corruption.


Last week, the Coast Guard said it intercepted 531 Haitians as they tried to escape the chaos. Most were sent back to Port-au-Prince, but a few dozen who asked for asylum were kept aboard Coast Guard ships, where their claims will be investigated.


The repatriation incensed Democratic Sen. Bob Graham of Florida, who joined a number of his colleagues in signing a letter urging that protective status be made available to Haitians picked up fleeing the country.


"The idea of sending people back to the killing fields of Haiti is violative of all our values," he said.

cl-Libraone~

 


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Registered: 03-18-2000
Tue, 03-02-2004 - 10:38am
Aristide says U.S. deposed him in 'coup d'etat'.
White House calls allegation 'nonsense'.

Ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide says he was forced out of Haiti in a "real coup d'etat" led by the United States, in what he called a "modern way to have a modern kidnaed pping."


"I was told that to avoid bloodshed I'd better leave," he said in an interview on CNN on Monday.


Earlier, the Bush administration vigorously denied that Aristide was kidnapped by U.S. troops, which is what two U.S. members of Congress said the deposed Haitian president told them in telephone calls.


"That's nonsense," White House press secretary Scott McClellan said. "I've seen some of the reports do nothing to help the Haitians move forward to a better, more prosperous future."


One day after Aristide left the country and one month after a rebellion began in northern Haiti, heavily armed Haitian rebels drove into Port-au-Prince Monday, moving into the headquarters of the national police while U.S. Marines took up positions across the street at the presidential palace. (Full story) (Aristide's home looted) (City streets)


McClellan said the United States took steps to protect Aristide and his family as they left Haiti, but denied that U.S. forces took him from his home to the airport.


"The military presence we had at the time was at the embassy," McClellan said. " went with his own personal security."


But Rep. Charles Rangel, D-New York, and Rep. Maxine Waters, D-California, said Aristide told them a very different story.


Waters said Mildred Aristide, the ex-president's wife, called the congresswoman at her home at 6:30 a.m. (9:30 a.m. ET) Monday, and told her "the coup d'etat has been completed," and then handed the phone to her husband.


Waters said that Aristide told her the chief of staff of the U.S. Embassy in Haiti came to his home, told him that he would be killed "and a lot of Haitians would be killed" if he did not leave and said he "has to go now."


More....................


http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/americas/03/02/aristide.claim/index.html


cl-Libraone~



Edited 3/2/2004 12:54:47 PM ET by cl-libraone

 


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Registered: 04-16-2003
Tue, 03-02-2004 - 2:01pm
Jean Bertrand Aristide: Humanist Or Despot?

Commentary, By Lyn Duff,

Pacific News Service, Mar 01, 2004

Editor's Note: When PNS contributor, Lyn Duff, went to Haiti in 1995 at 19 to help start a radio program for street kids, Jean Bertrand Aristide, Haiti's now ousted president, befriended her. What she knew of Aristide, a compassionate, caring humanist, conflicts with the current public image of a dictator.

BY LYN DUFF, PACIFIC NEWS SERVICE

The Jean Bertrand Aristide I know is markedly different from the one that is being portrayed in the media.

In 1995 when, I was 19 years old, I traveled to Haiti to help set up Radyo Timoun, a radio station run by street children in the capital, Port-au-Prince. Over three and a half years I worked and often lived with the children of Lafanmi Selavi, a shelter for some of the nation's quarter of a million homeless children.

It was there that I came to know Jean Bertrand Aristide, not just as the president of the poorest country in the western hemisphere, but also as a father, teacher, a friend, and a surrogate dad for hundreds of parentless street kids.

In his private life Aristide was very simple and, in many ways, unaffected by the power and prestige that went with being president. He lived in a beautiful but rather small house near the airport where he seemed to be oblivious to the deafening sound of airplanes taking off at all hours. He took piano lessons, played with his children, read books in a myriad of languages, and spent hours in meetings. After his first daughter was born, I often saw children from the neighborhood playing with the toddler under the mango tree while his wife Mildred watched.

The only time I saw their small swimming pool used was when groups of children - usually street children, or kids from our radio station, or children attending literacy classes at the nearby Aristide Foundation for Democracy - came over for a swim. One time, on the way home I asked the boys what they'd discussed with Titid after lunch, and one of them volunteered, "We talked about dating girls and how you should be respectful, and about how to be a good man."

Our conversations were not frequent but when we did chat he always treated me with respect and love in a very real way. Whether I struggled with algebra or with the Bible he always took time to talk about equations or his own faith.

When I faced life after college with trepidation he listened attentively to my fears and concerns before asking if I wanted advice. When I said yes, he helped me sort through my options. During a speaking tour in the south of Haiti, I accompanied him. To the impatience of his staff, he insisted that we drive slowly over the rocky and rutted roads. "It's not worth it to go fast if someone gets hurt," he said.

How then to reconcile Titid the humanist with what the media calls a despot of Haiti?

I don't know, and frankly, I've been struggling with that question. When I spoke with Haitians working for a few pennies an hour sewing clothes for American companies, I was frustrated that Aristide insisted on following a democratic process to raise the minimum wage knowing that the process would be slower and result in a lower minimum than if he just unilaterally raised it himself.

Aristide said, "Change takes time, Lyn. Some people have spent years paying Haitians very little. When I wanted to raise the minimum wage in 1991, they had a coup and you know what happened." He reminded me that he had gone to parliament to raise the minimum wage in 1994, though it was still very low. "Of course people should be paid more, but in a democracy we have to share power and this is what was " he said.

When a major American daily paper published an article that portrayed Aristide as a despot, I was aghast. "Don't you care that they're saying this about you?" I asked him. As much as I disagreed with some of his politics, I was hurt when I saw him so maligned.

Aristide always had an answer: "What is important is not journalists, it's to make democracy real. How can we say we love our brother but we let him starve? How can we say we want democracy but we do nothing when people have no home? How can people have peace in their hearts when they have no peace in their stomach?"

There are, he added, "Larger forces at work here than you or me, forces that have a big stake in our small country."

Knowing President Aristide, I would guess that his staff was much more concerned with how the international media portrayed him than he was personally. Perhaps in the end that was one of his bigger mistakes, failing to focus on winning over the world's opinion.

My opinion about Titid hasn't changed, however. I will always know Titid as a humanist over the failed politician. And during this chaotic time I remember him and his family and wish them peace.

http://news.pacificnews.org/news/view_article.html?article_id=91d1e70b948c37f529e49136463f5a4d

Avatar for goofyfoot
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-26-2003
Tue, 03-02-2004 - 2:31pm
It must be for the OIL!

It appears the left is trying to make a "conspiracy" out of this. Aristide didn't walk his talk, and the people "recalled" him in the only way they could. Afterall, Haiti

has been a garbage can since the French left and sold off Louisiana.

iVillage Member
Registered: 04-16-2003
Thu, 03-04-2004 - 10:49am
March 4, 2004

Hard Realities in Haiti



Rescuing Haiti from a crisis Washington too long ignored and then badly mishandled is going to take a lot more than whisking its democratically elected president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, off to Africa and gingerly deploying a few hundred United States marines. Yesterday, those marines rightly moved beyond their original mission of safeguarding only American lives and property, and began patrolling the tense streets of Port-au-Prince. Earlier in the day, fierce gun battles raged in the capital's strongly pro-Aristide slums, where rampaging rebel bands battled Aristide supporters.

The Bush administration's belated and ham-handed intervention last weekend practically delivered Haiti into the hands of an unsavory gang of convicted murderers and former death squad officers under the overall command of Guy Philippe, whom American and Haitian officials believe to be a drug trafficker. Mr. Aristide's opponents also include plenty of nonviolent democrats, but they are weak and divided and have so far been easily pushed aside. Their most significant act to date was torpedoing an American-proposed compromise last month that might have strengthened Haiti's anemic democratic institutions.

Now those institutions have all but collapsed. The Supreme Court justice hastily sworn in on Sunday as interim president has kept out of public view, limiting himself to a single radio address. Mr. Philippe has threatened to arrest the prime minister, now under the Marines' protection. Other ministers have gone into hiding. It looks as if Washington will have to pry power away forcefully from Mr. Philippe, who proclaimed himself leader of a reborn Haitian Army on Tuesday, reviving a military force that long dominated and terrorized Haiti. Yesterday, he promised to disarm his followers. Washington needs to make sure that he keeps his word.

The United States has compelling reasons for involving itself again in Haiti, the hemisphere's poorest nation, which American troops occupied twice in the 20th century. After intervening to restore Mr. Aristide, the first democratically elected president in Haitian history, to office in 1994, Washington failed to do enough to help develop strong institutions, like an independent police force and judiciary, to sustain democratic rule. These high-minded arguments for continued involvement are supplemented by less-refined political considerations. Continued disorder in Haiti would propel thousands of desperate refugees toward nearby Florida, something Mr. Bush surely does not want in a presidential election year.

Yet after costly nation-building stumbles in Afghanistan and Iraq, it's astonishing to see the administration assume responsibility for yet another failed state with so little forethought or serious planning. In a sadly familiar pattern, the White House again seems to have convinced itself that with the departure of a leader it detested and the arrival of American troops, political bitterness built up over generations would evaporate, hardened fighters would simply lay down their arms, and effective, popular pro-American politicians would emerge to run a newly functional government.

Administration officials may already be starting to recognize that a far more active, lengthy and expensive American role will be required.

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/04/opinion/04THU1.html

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-18-2000
Mon, 03-08-2004 - 8:52am
What an insane mess!

 


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Avatar for goofyfoot
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Registered: 03-26-2003
Mon, 03-08-2004 - 1:54pm
Money well spent on lobbying vs. feeding his own people. Aristide screwed his own people for power and they rebelled. And the French agree.

Aristide Spent Millions to Lobby Washington

VOA News

05 Mar 2004, 17:35 UTC



AP

Jean-Bertrand Aristide

U.S. Justice Department records show former Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide and his Lavalas Party spent more than $7 million in recent years to lobby the United States.

The records show Mr. Aristide's government hired several lobbying firms from 1997 through 2002, while Haiti remained the poorest country in the Americas.

The records say the efforts were to contact members of Congress and other officials to discuss moving the democratic process in Haiti forward, as well as aid and other issues. The Washington Times newspaper reports that over the same time period, U.S. aid to Haiti declined.

On Monday, the Miami Herald quoted government officials in Haiti and Washington as saying Mr. Aristide paid between $6 and $9 million annually for his bodyguards.

Earlier this week, White House spokesman Scott McClellan accused Mr. Aristide's government of condoning corruption, including drug trafficking, and of committing acts of political violence against the opposition. Mr. McClellan did not give evidence for his assertions.

Mr. Aristide, who resigned and left Haiti on Sunday, has said the United States forced him from office in what he said amounted to a coup d'etat. On Thursday, he insisted in a phone interview obtained by the French news agency that he is still Haiti's president because he did not formally resign. He accused France of colluding with the United States to oust him.

Mr. Aristide also said he plans to return to his country.

http://www.voanews.com/article.cfm?objectID=4D484E9B-56F2-444F-BF6DDC717B9121A6