Powell and Aide Questioned on Haiti by Panel's Skeptics

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Powell and Aide Questioned on Haiti by Panel's Skeptics

By CHRISTOPHER MARQUIS


March 4, 2004


WASHINGTON, March 3 — Secretary of State Colin L. Powell and his top aide for Latin America faced fierce questioning on Wednesday from lawmakers who rejected the administration's claims that President Jean-Bertrand Aristide of Haiti had resigned of his own free will.

At a hearing dominated by Democratic members of the Congressional Black Caucus, Roger F. Noriega, the assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere affairs, was denounced as insolent and misguided, and faced derisive laughter, as he testified that the United States had not forced Mr. Aristide from office.

"We did not support the violent overthrow of that man," Mr. Noriega told members of a House international relations subcommittee.

Mr. Aristide, who was flown into exile in the Central African Republic aboard an American plane on Sunday, has said he was kidnapped by American officials determined to oust him. Angry Democrats excoriated the administration for effectively carrying out a coup d'état. In the hearing, lawmakers said Mr. Aristide had been coerced into resigning....>>

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/04/politics/04CAPI.html