Aristide launches kidnap lawsuit

[diamond geezer]

This should be interesting.

link (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/3587777.stm)

Ousted Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide has filed a lawsuit against unnamed French and US officials, accusing them of kidnapping him.

Mr Aristide left the country a month ago, as armed rebels were marching on the capital, Port-au-Prince.

He has repeatedly accused the Americans of forcing him into exile. Both the US and France had urged him to stand down.

Washington and Paris say Mr Aristide agreed to leave Haiti and voluntarily signed a letter of resignation. Mr Aristide initially went to the Central African Republic and is currently in Jamaica.

The suit for "threats, death threats, abduction and illegal detention" was lodged in Paris on Tuesday, Mr Aristide's lawyer, Gilbert Collard said.

It designated the defendant as X - a French legal term for persons unknown.

Mr Collard said Mr Aristide's US lawyers would file an identical suit.

"We have received a mandate from Mr Aristide and the US lawyer taking care of his interests, Mr Ira Kurzban, to lodge a lawsuit against any person who may be held responsible for abduction," Mr Collard said.

[mactastic]

Phew! Good thing we aren't subject to ICC jurisdiction! We can safely ignore this I would think.

[diamond geezer]

*HAVANA, March 29 (Xinhuanet) -- The United States armed and trained in the Dominican Republic the groups that rose against former Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, a preliminary report issued in the Dominican Republic indicated Monday.

This provisional conclusion was reached by the Investigation Commission on Haiti, formed by religious persons and lawyers of several nations and created in 1991 by the former US Secretary of Justice Ramsey Clark.

"200 soldiers of the US Special Forces arrived in the DominicanRepublic, with the authorization of Dominican President Hipolito Mejia, as a part of the military operation to train Haitian rebels," declared the commission when unveiling the report in the Dominican capital Santo Domingo.

Priest Luis Barrios and lawyer Briant Concannon, both members of the "independent" commission, presented the preliminary resultsof the investigation that contradicted the Dominican authorities which had previously considered "surrealistic and oneiric" the delivery of US guns to Haitian rebels in their national soil, as some accusations stated.

The report said that Aristide reiterated to the commission he "had not resigned to the presidency of Haiti and was kidnapped lastMarch 1 by the government of the United States" to remove him of power in the face of the rebel insurrection.

A member of the commission, Teresa Gutierrez, wondered "how therebel leaders could train and arm in the Dominican Republic if thegovernment of Mejia assured several times to his Haitian counterpart Aristide that he would tolerate no guerrilla movement"in his territories.

Barrios said at a press conference that the commission had a "countless number of reports" proving that the Haitian rebels were armed and trained in Dominican military camps located in the eastern locality of San Isidro and the western regions of Haina and Neiba.

They also mentioned that rebel Guy Philippe was detained twice but "immediately released" in the Dominican Republic, in December 2001 and May 2003, while the insurgent leader Louis-Jodel Chamblain "was photographed" disguised as a Dominican police.

The most scandalous case was the release of the Haitian rebel Jean Robert after his followers kidnapped 16 Dominicans to demand,successfully, his liberation despite his connections to the murderof the two Dominican soldiers in the northwestern province of Dajabon on Feb. 14.

The commission that interviewed Aristide in the Central AfricanRepublic, where he went into exiled after he "resigned," will present the definitive report to the US Congress, the Dominican government, the Organization of American States (OAS) and the Caribbean Community and Common Market (Caricom), which has not recognized yet the new Haitian regime

link (http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2004-03/30/content_1390551.htm)

[zimv20]

not that i completely disbelieve that the hatian coup was US-backed, but i'm not putting any money on the accuracy of xinhuanet.com. is this a site you've read before and found to be reputable?

[diamond geezer]

not that i completely disbelieve that the hatian coup was US-backed, but i'm not putting any money on the accuracy of xinhuanet.com. is this a site you've read before and found to be reputable?

No, I've got no idea what they are like. But with the state of the Media in the US regarding "fair and balanced" reporting, I see no reason not to post "dodgy" websites.

Make up your own mind.

[timmyOtool]

I can believe that they forced him to leave. Even that they threated him. I don't, however, see why they would back this and then force him to leave. Why not just let him die, that would have been alot cleaner. I mean if the U.S. and France where behind it would it not stand to reason that they would not want to leave anyone who could expose this around.