U.S. DELEGATION MEETS WITH PRESIDENT ARISTIDE ARISTIDE REVEALS DETAILS OF COUP

Press release for email distribution
For Immediate Release
March 8, 2004

Contact:
Sarah Sloan or Brian Becker
202-544-3389, 212-633-6646

A delegation from the United States met twice today with
overthrown Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide in
Bangui, Central African Republic. Following the first
meeting, President Aristide held a news conference at the
Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and then conducted a
30-minute phone interview in English with Pacifica Radio’s
Democracy Now.

The delegation includes Kim Ives from Haiti Progres and
the Haiti Support Network, and Johnnie Stevens and Sara
Flounders from the International Action Center. Ives,
Flounders and Stevens are representing former U.S.
Attorney General Ramsey Clark. Also on the delegation are
Brian Concannon, acting in the capacity of President
Aristide’s lawyer; and Katherine Kean, a friend of
President Aristide.

Aristide’s press conference today and his meeting with the
U.S. delegation constituted a remarkable turnabout from
the day before when the delegation was barred by the
Central African Republic government from meeting with
Aristide. Following the refusal to give the delegation
access to meet with the ousted Haitian president, a press
release entitled "Aristide Under Lock & Key" circulated
around the world. Thousands of individual activists and
organizations submitted the press release and statement to
local media throughout the United States in a
high-visibility emergency mobilization to tell the truth.
The Central African Republic officials have made it clear
that their country is under severe pressure from the
United States and France.

The Curtain of Silence that has surrounded President
Aristide since the February 28/29 coup has now been
significantly opened as a consequence of this political
intervention. The world, and especially the Haitian
people, has been anxious to hear from President Aristide.
It is precisely for this reason that the U.S. State
Department and the French Foreign Ministry have applied so
much pressure to the Central African Republic to prevent
him from having access to the media, and to his attorneys,
friends and supporters.

The delegation arranged for President Aristide to be
interviewed by Pacifica Radio’s Democracy Now. Amy Goodman
of Democracy Now introduced today’s interview with these
words:

"Moments before the Democracy Now! interview, Aristide
appeared publicly for the first time since he was forced
out of Haiti in what he has called a US-backed coup. The
authorities in the Central African Republic allowed
Aristide to hold a news conference after a delegation of
visiting U.S. activists charged that the Haitian president
was being held under lock and key like a prisoner. The
delegation included one of Aristide’s lawyers, Brian
Concannon, as well as activists from the Haiti Support
Network and the International Action Center,
representatives of former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey
Clark. Shortly after they arrived in Bangui on Sunday, the
delegation attempted to meet with Aristide at the palace
of the Renaissance. The CAR government rebuked them.

"Shortly after, the country’s foreign minister held a
press conference in Bangui. Armed men threatened
journalists in the room, warning them not to record the
minister’s remarks. Mildred Aristide, the Haitian First
lady, was brought into the room, but was not permitted to
speak. The CAR foreign minister told the journalists that
President Aristide would hold a news conference within 72
hours. Hours later, Aristide was allowed to address
journalists.

"In his interview on Democracy Now!, Aristide asserted
that he is the legitimate president of Haiti and that he
wants to return to the country as soon as possible. He
details his last moments in Haiti, describing what he
called his ’kidnapping’ and the coup d’etat against him."

In his press conference and in the direct meetings with
the delegation, "President Aristide was very forceful
about the fact that he was kidnapped, and that his
government is being replaced by a U.S.-sponsored
government of occupation," said Sara Flounders of the
International Action Center. President Aristide also said
that "only his return to Haiti can bring peace, and he
stated that the people who carried out this campaign
against his government are internationally recognized
criminals.

"President Aristide said that he had been lied to by the
U.S. ambassador, who assured him that he was being taken
to a press conference to talk with international and
Haitian media. He was instead forced onto a plane and
taken out of the country in a U.S. coup d’etat," according
to Flounders. "President Aristide also pointed out the
irony that Haiti, which only has 1.5 doctors for every
11,000 people, now has seen the closing of its primary
medical school and that school is now being used to house
U.S. Marines and other foreign soldiers."

President Aristide expanded on this point both in the
press conference and in his interview on Democracy Now!:
"In my country, after 200 years of independence - we are
the first Black independent country in the world - but we
still have only 1.5 Haitian doctors for every 11,000
Haitians. We created a university, we founded a university
with the faculty of medicine that has 247 students. Once
U.S. soldiers arrived in Haiti after the kidnapping, what
did they do? They closed the faculty of medicine and they
are now in the classrooms. This is what they call peace.
This is the opposite of peace. Peace means investing in
human beings, investing in health care, respect for human
rights, not violations of human rights, no violations for
the rights of those who voted for an elected President,
and this is what it means. ... How can you imagine that
you come to me, you want to be in peace, and you close my
university and you send out 247 students of medicine in
the country where you don’t have hospitals and you don’t
have enough doctors. God, this is an occupation. When you
protect killers, when you protect drug dealers like Guy
Philippe, like Chamblain, when you protect the citizens of
the United States in violating the law of the United
States, Mr. Andy Apaid is a citizen of the United States,
violating the Neutral Act, the way with this act will
destroying our Democracy, and once we do that, then this
is an occupation." (quotation from Democracy Now!)

Kim Ives, who is with the Haiti Support Network and is a
journalist with the newspaper Haiti Progres, is a member
of the delegation and had an opportunity to speak to
President Aristide in Creole during the meeting following
today’s press conference. Ives states that Aristide’s
account of the events of February 28-29 stand in sharp
contrast to the account given by Colin Powell and other
U.S. officials to the Washington Post on March 3. The U.S.
"story" was that Aristide was ready to leave the country
and that they simply facilitated his departure at his
request. Colin Powell and other U.S. officials later said
that Aristide’s assertion that he had been the victim of a
U.S. coup were "absurd" and "not true."

Ives stated, "The Washington Post and other U.S. media
coverage gives the impression that the sequence of events
leading to Aristide’s departure at 6 am on February 29
began around 4 or 5 am when Aristide allegedly called U.S.
officials and asked for their assistance in leaving the
country. President Aristide told me that in fact ’armed
Americans and diplomats’ came to his residence the day
before - that is, on the evening of February 28. Aristide
reported that U.S. officials told the 19 security guards
that have functioned as a presidential security detail
that they should abandon their posts. These 19 security
guards were on assignment from the Steele Foundation and
are mostly former members of the U.S. Special Forces. They
were told by U.S. officials that they ’wouldn’t be
protected, the gig was up.’ President Aristide asserts
that these Steele Foundation security guards basically
obeyed the orders from their former employers (the
Pentagon). They were flown by helicopter on Saturday night
away from the preidential palace, leaving Aristide with no
armed protection."

A recent Miami Herald article on the subject reported that
another 25 reinforcement security guards from the Steele
Foundation, who were supposed to arrive Saturday, February
28, received a call Friday night telling them that the
U.S. would block their deployment.

Mr. Ives also stated that "President Aristide was told by
U.S. Ambassador James Foley that the U.S. officials and
armed forces would take him to a press conference with the
international and Haitian press, where President Aristide
could make his case. President Aristide agreed to go on
the condition that he could speak to the media, and also
that his home would be protected from any attack or
looting. The fact is, the press conference never took
place and his home was looted almost immediately after he
left.

"President Aristide was instead driven to a plane. Upon
arriving at approximately 5 am on February 29, he found
his 19 security guards already there. They were all flown
– including the one-year-old child of one of the guards -
to the Central African Republic. After spending 20 hours
on a plane flying to a destination unknown to them, the
security guards were then flown back to the Untied States.
The trip prevented them from revealing the details of the
coup until after Aristide was out of Haiti and in the
Central African Republic.

"In the course of the discussions with President Aristide,
it became clear that the timing of the coup coincided with
several international developments that could have shifted
the relationship of forces in the Haitian government’s
favor. While the U.S. government escalated pressure on
Aristide to resign in that last week, the government of
South Africa had sent a planeload of weapons that was set
to arrive on Sunday, February 29. Venezuela was in
discussions about sending troops to support Aristide.
There was also gathering international support and
solidarity for the maintenance of constitutional democracy
in Haiti. African American leaders were receiving
increasing media attention as they denounced the efforts
towards a coup. Two prominent U.S. delegations, one led by
members of the Congressional Black Caucus and another led
by former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark, were set to
arrive within days. We can see that there were various
converging influences of aid about to come. This accounts
in large part for the timing of the coup, it explains why
the U.S. had to rush in and remove Aristide," concluded
Ives.

Johnnie Stevens of the International Action Center stated,
"Today, as a consequence of strong international pressure,
the people of Haiti and the rest of the world have had a
chance to hear President Aristide refute the lies and
slanders of the U.S. government and its henchmen from the
former Haitian military who are behind the coup. We
believe that the U.S has tried to muzzle or silence
President Aristide, not simply to stop one man from
speaking out. The goal is to discourage the people of
Haiti from continuing the growing struggle demanding
President Aristide’s return. It is really an effort to
muzzle, silence and pacify the people in order to impose
U.S. regime change."

Stevens continued, "The people of Haiti have been a source
of inspiration for two centuries. Their struggle for
freedom, independence and sovereignty is part and parcel
of the struggle of oppressed people everywhere. We must
continue to do everything in our power to stand up against
the racist designs of the Bush administration."

In his interview with Democracy Now!, President Aristide
was asked if he planned to return to Haiti. His response:
"If I can go [to Haiti] today, I would go today. If it’s
tomorrow, tomorrow. Whenever time comes, I will say yes,
because my people, they elected me."

To schedule an interview with a member of the delegation
or to get more information, contact Sarah Sloan or Brian
Becker at 202-544-3389 or 212-633-6646.

To read the March 7 press release - "Aristide Under Lock &
Key" - go to
http://www.internationalanswer.org/news/update/030704haiti.html

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REMINDER:

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Iraq, thousands will demonstration in New York, San
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country and around the world. We will demand "Bring the
Troops Home Now" and "End Colonial Occupation form Iraq to
Palestine to Haiti and everywhere!" For details on the
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