[Peace-discuss] Fwd: Kidnapped Aristide muzzled by US captors (CNN)

[Al Kagan]

>Date: Sun, 7 Mar 2004 11:45:01 -0500
>To: SRRT Action Council <srrtac-l at ala.org>
>From: Mark Rosenzweig <iskra at earthlink.net>
>Subject: [SRRTAC-L:13025] Kidnapped Aristide muzzled by US captors (CNN)
>Cc: "srrtac-l at ala.org" <srrtac-l at ala.org>,
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>[US forces which deposed and kidnapped Haiti's first democratically 
>elected president have imprisoned him in the Central African 
>Republic where he has also been cut off from all outside 
>communications while his fate and the fate of his country are being 
>determined.
>
>We librarians worry when a single speaker is denied a venue at a US 
>high school auditorium, a single book is 'challenged ' in a local 
>library system, when filters are placed on internet terminals in a 
>county's libraries. Do we worry when our own government and its 
>military (and I emphasize this, in order to answer in advance why 
>we, in  particular should be interested in this matter) gags the 
>democratically-elected president of a sovereign nation, preventing 
>him from all free intercourse with the outside world, depriving the 
>illegitimately deposed  head of state of his rights of free speech?
>
>One wonders, in view of this, what concern such a government as ours 
>--  willing with such imperious casualness  to abduct and muzzle a 
>M. Aristide, a President of another country, in full view of the 
>world, and to imprison him and his wife in violation of all 
>international law --  can have, without the basest cynicism,  with 
>the free speech rights of any peoples in  any other nations?    (M. 
>Rosenzweig) ]
>++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
>     Aristide's Guest Privileges Pared in Exile
>     By Jeff Koinange
>     CNN
>
>     Saturday 6 March 2004
>
>Central African Republic still sheltering Haiti's ex-president
>
>      BANGUI, Central African Republic (CNN) --Ousted Haitian 
>President Jean-Bertrand Aristide remained for a fourth day Friday in 
>a gilded cage in this dilapidated capital city, unable to 
>communicate with the outside world, his spokesman said in a 
>telephone interview from Paris.
>
>      Aristide, 50, and his American wife, Mildred Trouillot, have 
>been billeted in an apartment on the grounds of the president's 
>mansion since Monday, when they arrived here from Port-au-Prince 
>accompanied by Aristide's brother and two bodyguards.
>
>      The villa is part of the presidential mansion, which is located 
>in the middle of the capital on a five-acre spread overlooking the 
>Ubangui River, within sight of neighboring Democratic Republic of 
>Congo.
>
>      The grounds surrounding his villa are immaculately groomed, and 
>the area is heavily fortified, surrounded by a wall and military -- 
>including French gendarmes.
>
>      Vehicles entering the compound are checked for explosives, and 
>no members of the media are allowed entrance.
>
>      Aristide has access to satellite television, but his telephone 
>privileges were revoked after he told CNN Tuesday that he had been 
>forced to leave Haiti -- a victim of a U.S.-led coup -- and he is 
>not allowed to leave his villa, his spokesman told CNN.
>
>      U.S. officials have dismissed the claim as nonsense, and said 
>Aristide left of his own volition after it was made clear to him 
>that U.S. authorities could not guarantee the security of his family 
>or his countrymen in the face of advancing rebel forces.
>
>      "We cannot afford for him to embarrass us, because he has 
>allegedly said he is a prisoner, and accused Washington of 
>orchestrating his premature departure," Central African Republic 
>Minister of Information Parfait M'Bay told CNN regarding Aristide's 
>loss of telephone privileges.
>
>      "We made Mr. Aristide understand that in no case could he use 
>the territory of Central Africa, the hospitality of Central Africa, 
>to create problems for his country by calling on the people to 
>revolt, for example, or by making regrettable statements."
>
>      M'Bay said Aristide would be granted asylum in Central African 
>Republic, but only if he asks for it.
>
>      Aristide's host and the leader of the government is Gen. 
>Francois Bozize, a 55-year-old career military officer who seized 
>power last March in a coup against the elected president, Ange Felix 
>Patasse.
>
>      Patasse was exiled to Togo.
>
>      That change of power is just the latest of a number of military 
>coups and dictatorships that have wracked the former French colony 
>since it gained independence in 1964. The impoverished, Arizona-size 
>country has a population of 3 million, about 600,000 of whom live in 
>the capital.
>
>      The generally muted political opposition here expressed dismay 
>at Aristide's presence.
>
>      "We don't want any other people's problems here in our 
>country," said Timothee Malendoma, a former general who served as 
>prime minister during the 1970s and 1980s, when the francophone 
>country was a popular destination for Haitians fleeing the 
>tyrannical regimes of Francois ("Papa Doc") Duvalier and his son 
>Jean-Claude ("Baby Doc") Duvalier.
>
>      "We have had our fair share and don't need any more now, and 
>not here," Malendoma said. "Let him go somewhere else, where he'll 
>be welcome. The Central African Republic is not a dumping ground."
>
>      But most of those questioned in the capital, where illiteracy 
>runs high, had no strong feelings on Aristide's presence. Many said 
>they did not know who he is.
>
>      In Washington, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell talked 
>Friday with the South African foreign minister about developments in 
>Haiti "and how things unfolded over the weekend, and both of them 
>expressed support for a democratic and peaceful resolution to 
>Haiti's political problems," deputy spokesman J. Adam Ereli told 
>reporters.
>
>      The discussion did not include where Aristide may wind up, Ereli said.
>
>      "For us, it's not something we're actually involved in," he said.
>
>      But CNN's Charlayne Hunter-Gault said that U.S. Ambassador to 
>South Africa Cameron Hume called South African President Thabo Mbeki 
>to tell him that Aristide's preference was to go there.
>
>      Hume would not say what Mbeki's response was.
>
>      Also, the South African defense minister told CNN that last 
>week it sent a plane laden with arms and equipment intended for the 
>Haitian police, but that the plane arrived too late to aid against 
>the rebels.
>
>      South Africa has called for a U.N. investigation into the 
>circumstances surrounding Aristide's departure from Haiti, saying 
>him being forced to leave would be a serious breach of international 
>law.
>
>-------


-- 


Al Kagan
African Studies Bibliographer and Professor of Library Administration
Africana Unit, Room 328
University of Illinois Library
1408 W. Gregory Drive
Urbana, IL 61801, USA

tel. 217-333-6519
fax. 217-333-2214
e-mail. akagan at uiuc.edu