[CIMC-work] more haiti material

Tue Mar 2 10:36:55 PST 2004

here is text from Democracy Now! interview.
also audio link which you probably have.  g.

Link to Audio
 >>http://audio20.archive.org/1/audio/
maxine_waters_haiti/maxine_waters_haiti.mp3
 >

>
>-------- Original Message --------
>Subject: Democracy Thwarted - "Tell the World It Was a 
Coup"
>From: "portside moderator" <moderator at portside.org>
>Date: Mon, March 1, 2004 8:08 pm
>To: portside at yahoogroups.com
>
>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 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.
>
>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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