for those of you who dont have access to alternative press.. perhaps this shouldnt come as a surprise considering the state of affairs...
Democracy Thwarted: Aristide Victim of US Engineered Coup De'tat
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=04/03/01/1521216
Monday, March 1st, 2004
Rep Maxine Waters: Aristide Says 'I Was Kidnapped'
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. Click on this link to read a
full transcript of the Democracy Now! interview with
Rep. Maxine Waters.
RUSH TRANSCRIPT
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 lead 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 arriived 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.
AMY GOODMAN: So again to summarize, Congressmember
Maxine Waters, you have just gotten off the phone with
President Jean Bertrand Aristide, who said he believes
he is in the Central African Republic.
MAXINE WATERS: That�s right, with French speaking
officers, he�s surrounded by them and he�s in this
place called the Palace of the Renaissance and he was
forced to go there. They took him there.
AMY GOODMAN: What are you going to do right now?
MAXINE WATERS: I�m going to get to the State Dept to
find out what do they plan on doing with him. Do they
plan on leaving him there or are they planning on
taking him to another country? We are going to tell
them we would like to see him. We are prepared to go
where he is NOW and that we are demanding that we are
able to see him and go where he is. And to negotiate
what will be done with him.
AMY GOODMAN: Did he describe how he was taken out? We
had heard reports in Haiti that he was taken out in
handcuffs. Did he�
MAXINE WATERS: No he did not say he was taken out in
handcuffs. He simply said that they came led by Mr.
Moreno followed by the marines and they said simply
�you have to go!� You have no choice, you must go and
if you don�t you will be killed and many Haitians will
be killed. We are planning with Mr. De filliped to come
into Puerto Rico. He will not be alone he will come
with American military and you will not survive, you
will be killed. You�ve got to go now!
AMY GOODMAN: How did President Aristide sound? What was
the quality of his voice?
MAXINE WATERS: The quality of his voice was anxious,
angry, disturbed, wanting people to know the truth.
AMY GOODMAN: Did he say why he had not made any calls
since early on Sunday morning; that people had not been
in touch with him for more than 36 hours. Certainly
this plane was equipped with a telephone?
AMY GOODMAN: What is the next step�what are you going
to do? What do you think the people in this country
should being doing about this situation in Haiti?
AMY GOODMAN: Congressmember Maxine Waters I want to
thank you for being with us again. Congress member
Waters has just spoken with President Aristide who she
says said he was kidnapped and is now with his wife and
surrounded by security in the Central African Republic.
To purchase an audio or video copy of this entire
program, click here for our new online ordering or call
1 (800) 881-2359.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Monday, March 1st, 2004
Randall Robinson: Aristide Says 'Tell the World It Is a Coup'
TransAfrica founder and close Aristide family friend
Randall Robinson also received a call from the Haitian
president early this morning and confirmed Rep. Maxine
Waters account. Robinson said that Aristide
"emphatically" denied that he had resigned. Click on
this link to read a full transcript of the Democracy
Now! interview with Randall Robinson.
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 they were 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 like
this 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. Outside they say 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.
That 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.
AMY GOODMAN: You spoke with him and Mildred Aristide up
to 10 times a day in the last days before they were
removed from Haiti. How did president Aristide sound
when you spoke with him today?
RANDALL ROBINSON: They sounded tired and very concerned
that the departure has been mistold to the world. They
wanted to make certain that I did all that I could to
disabuse any misled public that he had not resigned,
that he had been abducted. That was very, very
important to him and Mrs. Aristide explained to me the
strange response to my calls on Saturday night. I had
talked to her on Saturday morning and him on Friday.
But when I called the house on Saturday night, the
phone was answered by an unfamiliar voice who told me
that the president was busy, a response that was
strange and then when I asked for Mrs. Aristide, I was
told that she was busy, too. As she told me then, even
that early on, before they were taken away and before
the soldiers came, they had been instructed they were
not allowed to talk to anyone. So, that is - she said
that was the reason she explained this today, a few
minutes ago - why she was not able to talk to me and he
was not able to talk to me when I called the house
object Saturday evening.
AMY GOODMAN: Who did they say was the person that you
had actually spoken to?
RANDALL ROBINSON: No, but that it was not someone who
worked at the house because they know my voice when
they hear it and they respond to it because I call so
many times. This was something new, a new person, a new
voice, with a new kind of tone. That is when we began
to be concerned that something was amiss.
AMY GOODMAN: I will ask you the same question I asked
Congressmember Waters who also spoke with president
Aristide. The issue of whether president Aristide
resigned. Did he say he did or he didn't?
AMY GOODMAN He said he did not resign?
RANDALL ROBINSON: He did not resign. He did not resign.
He was kidnapped and all of the circumstances seem to
support his assertion. Had he resigned, we wouldn't
need blacked out windows and blocked communications and
military taking him away at gunpoint. Had he resigned,
he would have been happy to leave the country. He was
not. He resisted. Emphatically not. He did not resign.
He was abducted by the United States, a democratic, a
democratically elected president, abducted by the
United States in the commission of an American induced
coup. This is a frightening thing to contemplate.
AMY GOODMAN: And again, Randall Robinson, you said you
spoke to president Aristide by a cell phone that was
smuggled to him?
RANDALL ROBINSON: Yes and I cannot call back because I
have no number and the only way they can call out is by
cell phone because they have not been provided with any
land lines.
AMY GOODMAN: Did they say how long they will be staying
in this place that they are, the palace of the
Renaissance, they say they believe in the Central
African Republic?
RANDALL ROBINSON: I haven't been told anything. I told
her that last night I spoke to senator Dodd's foreign
policy person Janice O'Connell called me to say that
she had learned from the State Department that he was
being taken to the Central African Republic and she had
also been told by the State Department that they had
refused, that the south Africans had refused asylum. I
told her that I didn't believe that that was true
because the South African foreign minister - [Noise]
Hello?
AMY GOODMAN: Yes, Randall, Robinson, we hear you.
RANDALL ROBINSON: Because the South African foreign
minister had called me from India Mid-afternoon on
Sunday and she asked how I was doing and I thought I
was going to be doing much better, and I told her so.
And I said because I'm sure that president Aristide has
arrived in South Africa. She said no, he hasn't arrived
here. We haven't heard anything from him. We don't know
where he is and then we became really alarmed. She said
there's been no request for asylum. So, you see, the
State Department is telling an interested public,
including members of the congress, that South Africa
refused asylum. The State Department knows better. They
know that President Aristide was not allowed to request
asylum from South Africa or anybody else because he was
not allowed to make any phone calls before they left
Haiti, during the flight, and beyond.
AMY GOODMAN: Anything else you would like to add from
your conversation with president Aristide on this
smuggled phone that he got hold of after many hours
incommunicado and now saying he believes he is in the
central African republic with the first lady of Haiti,
Mildred Aristide?
RANDALL ROBINSON: The phrase that he used several times
and asked of me to find a way to tell the Haitian
people, he said tell the world it's a coup, it's a
coup, it's a coup.
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=04/03/01/1521216
Monday, March 1st, 2004
Rep Maxine Waters: Aristide Says 'I Was Kidnapped'
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. Click on this link to read a
full transcript of the Democracy Now! interview with
Rep. Maxine Waters.
RUSH TRANSCRIPT
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 lead 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 arriived 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.
AMY GOODMAN: So again to summarize, Congressmember
Maxine Waters, you have just gotten off the phone with
President Jean Bertrand Aristide, who said he believes
he is in the Central African Republic.
MAXINE WATERS: That�s right, with French speaking
officers, he�s surrounded by them and he�s in this
place called the Palace of the Renaissance and he was
forced to go there. They took him there.
AMY GOODMAN: What are you going to do right now?
MAXINE WATERS: I�m going to get to the State Dept to
find out what do they plan on doing with him. Do they
plan on leaving him there or are they planning on
taking him to another country? We are going to tell
them we would like to see him. We are prepared to go
where he is NOW and that we are demanding that we are
able to see him and go where he is. And to negotiate
what will be done with him.
AMY GOODMAN: Did he describe how he was taken out? We
had heard reports in Haiti that he was taken out in
handcuffs. Did he�
MAXINE WATERS: No he did not say he was taken out in
handcuffs. He simply said that they came led by Mr.
Moreno followed by the marines and they said simply
�you have to go!� You have no choice, you must go and
if you don�t you will be killed and many Haitians will
be killed. We are planning with Mr. De filliped to come
into Puerto Rico. He will not be alone he will come
with American military and you will not survive, you
will be killed. You�ve got to go now!
AMY GOODMAN: How did President Aristide sound? What was
the quality of his voice?
MAXINE WATERS: The quality of his voice was anxious,
angry, disturbed, wanting people to know the truth.
AMY GOODMAN: Did he say why he had not made any calls
since early on Sunday morning; that people had not been
in touch with him for more than 36 hours. Certainly
this plane was equipped with a telephone?
AMY GOODMAN: What is the next step�what are you going
to do? What do you think the people in this country
should being doing about this situation in Haiti?
AMY GOODMAN: Congressmember Maxine Waters I want to
thank you for being with us again. Congress member
Waters has just spoken with President Aristide who she
says said he was kidnapped and is now with his wife and
surrounded by security in the Central African Republic.
To purchase an audio or video copy of this entire
program, click here for our new online ordering or call
1 (800) 881-2359.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Monday, March 1st, 2004
Randall Robinson: Aristide Says 'Tell the World It Is a Coup'
TransAfrica founder and close Aristide family friend
Randall Robinson also received a call from the Haitian
president early this morning and confirmed Rep. Maxine
Waters account. Robinson said that Aristide
"emphatically" denied that he had resigned. Click on
this link to read a full transcript of the Democracy
Now! interview with Randall Robinson.
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 they were 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 like
this 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. Outside they say 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.
That 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.
AMY GOODMAN: You spoke with him and Mildred Aristide up
to 10 times a day in the last days before they were
removed from Haiti. How did president Aristide sound
when you spoke with him today?
RANDALL ROBINSON: They sounded tired and very concerned
that the departure has been mistold to the world. They
wanted to make certain that I did all that I could to
disabuse any misled public that he had not resigned,
that he had been abducted. That was very, very
important to him and Mrs. Aristide explained to me the
strange response to my calls on Saturday night. I had
talked to her on Saturday morning and him on Friday.
But when I called the house on Saturday night, the
phone was answered by an unfamiliar voice who told me
that the president was busy, a response that was
strange and then when I asked for Mrs. Aristide, I was
told that she was busy, too. As she told me then, even
that early on, before they were taken away and before
the soldiers came, they had been instructed they were
not allowed to talk to anyone. So, that is - she said
that was the reason she explained this today, a few
minutes ago - why she was not able to talk to me and he
was not able to talk to me when I called the house
object Saturday evening.
AMY GOODMAN: Who did they say was the person that you
had actually spoken to?
RANDALL ROBINSON: No, but that it was not someone who
worked at the house because they know my voice when
they hear it and they respond to it because I call so
many times. This was something new, a new person, a new
voice, with a new kind of tone. That is when we began
to be concerned that something was amiss.
AMY GOODMAN: I will ask you the same question I asked
Congressmember Waters who also spoke with president
Aristide. The issue of whether president Aristide
resigned. Did he say he did or he didn't?
AMY GOODMAN He said he did not resign?
RANDALL ROBINSON: He did not resign. He did not resign.
He was kidnapped and all of the circumstances seem to
support his assertion. Had he resigned, we wouldn't
need blacked out windows and blocked communications and
military taking him away at gunpoint. Had he resigned,
he would have been happy to leave the country. He was
not. He resisted. Emphatically not. He did not resign.
He was abducted by the United States, a democratic, a
democratically elected president, abducted by the
United States in the commission of an American induced
coup. This is a frightening thing to contemplate.
AMY GOODMAN: And again, Randall Robinson, you said you
spoke to president Aristide by a cell phone that was
smuggled to him?
RANDALL ROBINSON: Yes and I cannot call back because I
have no number and the only way they can call out is by
cell phone because they have not been provided with any
land lines.
AMY GOODMAN: Did they say how long they will be staying
in this place that they are, the palace of the
Renaissance, they say they believe in the Central
African Republic?
RANDALL ROBINSON: I haven't been told anything. I told
her that last night I spoke to senator Dodd's foreign
policy person Janice O'Connell called me to say that
she had learned from the State Department that he was
being taken to the Central African Republic and she had
also been told by the State Department that they had
refused, that the south Africans had refused asylum. I
told her that I didn't believe that that was true
because the South African foreign minister - [Noise]
Hello?
AMY GOODMAN: Yes, Randall, Robinson, we hear you.
RANDALL ROBINSON: Because the South African foreign
minister had called me from India Mid-afternoon on
Sunday and she asked how I was doing and I thought I
was going to be doing much better, and I told her so.
And I said because I'm sure that president Aristide has
arrived in South Africa. She said no, he hasn't arrived
here. We haven't heard anything from him. We don't know
where he is and then we became really alarmed. She said
there's been no request for asylum. So, you see, the
State Department is telling an interested public,
including members of the congress, that South Africa
refused asylum. The State Department knows better. They
know that President Aristide was not allowed to request
asylum from South Africa or anybody else because he was
not allowed to make any phone calls before they left
Haiti, during the flight, and beyond.
AMY GOODMAN: Anything else you would like to add from
your conversation with president Aristide on this
smuggled phone that he got hold of after many hours
incommunicado and now saying he believes he is in the
central African republic with the first lady of Haiti,
Mildred Aristide?
RANDALL ROBINSON: The phrase that he used several times
and asked of me to find a way to tell the Haitian
people, he said tell the world it's a coup, it's a
coup, it's a coup.
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