Doubts Linger on Aristide's Exit
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — It's been a year since Jean-Bertrand Aristide fled Haiti's presidential palace on a U.S. jet, but a question still nags many people here and in Washington: Did he jump or was he pushed?
Almost immediately after landing in Africa, where he remains in exile, Aristide began alleging that he was "kidnapped" by U.S. Marines and that he was forced to resign in a U.S.-led "coup d'etat." Several members of Congress contend he was ousted, and there is a new call in the House of Representatives to investigate the U.S. role in Aristide's Feb. 29 departure.
Lingering concerns that Aristide's conservative opponents and the Bush administration colluded to depose him have hindered Haiti's recovery, fueling violence by some of his supporters. Many of his political allies refuse to take part in new elections unless he returns.
Several people with detailed knowledge of the pre-dawn scramble to get Aristide out of the country said he accepted the offer of a U.S. plane when Washington made it clear it would not send forces to protect him from a rebel onslaught. Afterward, they said, he cast the chaotic departure as a kidnapping.
"I can tell you unequivocally that he was not kidnapped," said Kenneth Kurtz, chief executive officer of the San Francisco-based Steele Foundation, the security and risk management company that was guarding Aristide at the time.
U.S. Ambassador James B. Foley handled the negotiations between Aristide and then-U.S. Secretary of State Colin L. Powell. He said Aristide had willingly accepted the U.S. offer to fly him into exile.
"When we came through with the offer of safe exit in an airplane, we gave him an alibi for the scenario he's been using ever since," Foley said. "We clearly walked into a trap. But I think we did the right thing
Yet questions linger about how much pressure Foley applied to Aristide, who now lives in South Africa.
Former Prime Minister Yvon Neptune, who spoke with Aristide by telephone several times the night he fled, said the president told him about five hours before he left that he felt "like a prisoner" and that Western diplomats were warning him that unless he left, thousands could die in a clash of his armed supporters and advancing rebels.
Citing concerns about American pressure and "circumstantial evidence" that the U.S. may have helped incite the rebellion against Aristide, Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Oakland) submitted a bill to Congress on Feb. 17 calling for an investigation.
