01 March 2004
U.S. Denies Forcing Former Haitian President Aristide to Leave Haiti
White House calls kidnapping claim "complete nonsense"
By Eric Green
Washington File Staff Writer
Washington -- The Bush administration has strongly rejected allegations that U.S. military forces kidnapped former Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide to force him to resign his office and go into exile.
White House spokesman Scott McClellan told reporters March 1 that the claims were "complete nonsense," adding: "Conspiracy theories do nothing to help the Haitian people move forward to a better, more free, and more prosperous future." McClellan said Aristide had maintained he was resigning February 29 in order to avoid a "bloodbath" in the Caribbean nation.
Aristide left Haiti of "his own free will," said McClellan.
The United States took steps to protect Aristide and his family "so they would not be harmed as they departed Haiti," McClellan said. The Bush administration, he said, was "actively engaged" with its international partners before Aristide's resignation "to bring about a democratic, constitutional, and peaceful solution to the situation in Haiti."
McClellan said Aristide's aides had contacted the U.S. ambassador to Haiti, James Foley, on February 28, and asked if Aristide would be given protection by the United States if he resigned.
Foley consulted with Washington, then called Aristide's aides and told them that if Aristide decided to resign, the United States "would facilitate his departure, and we did," said McClellan.
The White House spokesman said the United States arranged for a plane to fly to Haiti to pick up Aristide. Aristide went to the airport in the company of his own personal security guards, McClellan said.
U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell backed up McClellan's flat denial that Aristide had been kidnapped, calling such charges "absolutely baseless, absurd."
"He was not kidnapped," said Powell. "We did not force him on the airplane. He went on the plane willingly."
The secretary said Aristide wrote a letter of resignation and only then did the United States bring an airplane to help the former Haitian president leave the country.
"It's rather unfortunate that in this sensitive time, when we are trying to stabilize the situation in Haiti and when we're sending in a multinational interim force to help bring about that stability and we're trying to put a political process on track -- I think it's very unfortunate that these kinds of absurd charges are leveled at us," said Powell.
The first destination Aristide wanted to go to in exile "would not receive him at this time," Powell said. "And so we went through about an hour and a half of difficult negotiations with various countries and with friends of ours to find alternative locations that he might go to, while the plane was in the air. And I'm very pleased that the Central African Republic showed a willingness to accept him on an interim basis, and that's where President Aristide and members of his family went, accompanied by his own personal security."
Powell said the United States would be working with Haitians to help them "put in place a political system, and we will support it to the best of our ability."
U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld also denied March 1 that the Bush administration had forced Aristide from office. Rumsfeld said he was involved in discussions about the situation in Haiti, but the "idea that someone was abducted is just totally inconsistent with everything I heard or saw or am aware of."
Rumsfeld said that at the request of Haiti's new president, President Bush ordered the deployment of a contingent of U.S. Marines to the island as the leading element of a multinational interim force.
Rumsfeld said U.S. forces are being deployed to secure key sites in the Haitian capital. Their mission, he said, is to "contribute to a more secure and stable environment during this initial phase, in order to help support the constitutional political process, to protect U.S. citizens, to facilitate the repatriation of any Haitians interdicted at sea, to help stand up the interim force and create conditions for the arrival of a U.N. multinational force."
The U.S. officials made their comments after Aristide reportedly told an American human rights activist, Randall Robinson, that he had been kidnapped at gunpoint by U.S. soldiers. Aristide reportedly claimed he was being held prisoner in the Central African Republic's capital city of Bangui.
(The Washington File is a product of the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
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