Reply #11: French Minister Villepin's sister was up to her neck in the coup

[Tinoire]

Journalist and French writer Thierry Meyssan reports that France and United States agreed in the summer of 2003 to a joint plan to prepare a coup d'etat against the ousted president of Haiti, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, due, among others things, to Washington's strategic interests in the region and to utilize the country as a base of operations to finish off Fidel Castro "within five months". The other motive would be French reaction to Aristide's decision to demand that Paris refund debt payments contracted with the former colony throughout the XIX century.

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Under these circumstances, indicates the journalist, Bush contacted France to carry out the plan to overthrow Aristide, with the objective to establish a base of operations "to finish off Fidel Castro (president of Cuba) within five months". The project would encompass 4 phases. The first phase was to achieve "democratic destabilization" by means of supporting and financing the internal opposition with funds from the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) and the creation, directed by U.S. undersecretary of State, Roger Noriega (an old enemy of Liberation Teology, to which Aristide subscribed), of a task force "for democratic restoration".

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The second phase is referred to as "diplomatic pressure", an operation supervised by the French intellectual Régis Debray and Veronique Albanel, president of the Universal Fraternal Association and the sister of Dominique of Villepin, the current French foreign minister. Under this cover, the U.S. and France exerted pressures on different countries of the region so that they would not participate in the ceremonies of the 200th independence anniversary of the "first black republic of America", celebrated January 1, this year in Port au Prince.

The third phase of the plan was the 'military destabilization' of Haiti in which, according to Meyssan, United States would put into play an armed group in the Dominican Republic, under the orders of Guy Philippe. In February 5, this group carried out an armed uprising in Gonaives (north), while the Group of 184, "in permanent contact" with the American secretary of state, Colin Powell, ordered the opposition to maintain a distance with the rebels to be able to opt for power without "having to feel responsible for the abuses or atrocities committed by the insurgents on their behalf", added the journalist.

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That same day, AFP commented that "many in Port Au Prince believed that the Dominican Army allowed the old Haitian military to enter Haiti with the approval of the U.S. which maintains very close ties with its joint command and the Government." The French agency also recalled that the "Dominican Republic was the only Caribbean country to sent 300 soldiers to Iraq at the request of the U.S." The fourth act of the plan was the "Abduction". On Sunday, U.S. Special Forces seized the Presidential Palace and told Aristide that, unless he resigned, he would be sent to Miami to be judged for drug trafficking. Otherwise, they would expect the arrival of his opponent, Guy Philippe, who had received orders "to kill him", said Meyssan.

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http://victoria.indymedia.org/news/2004/03/22828.php

Here's the original article:

Washington and Paris overthrow Aristide
Coup d’Etat in Haiti
Washington and Paris reconciled their colonial interests in the Caribbean by going on the attack with a cunning, well organized coup d’Etat in Haïti to overthrow elected president Aristide. After building an opposition that suited US interests, in the shape of former Duvalier regime financial handyman Andre Apaid, Washington then created armed opposition headed by former putschist officer Guy Philippe. Meanwhile, French powerbrokers Regis Debray and Veronique de Villepin-Albanel tried to force Jean-Bertrand Aristide to resign. Eventually, as the street remained loyal to Aristide, the "rebels" did not sweep into Port-au-Prince. It was left to US special forces to kidnap the president, in a dawn raid on the presidential palace.

<snip / note snipped sentence about Guy Phillipe fleeing to the US Embassy after the first coup in 2000! >

The Bush-2 administration made its decision to overthrow him at the end of 2002, and found a good community of views with France on this subject, since both nations have traditionally seen Haiti as needing common control. Paris, conversely, did not set its stance until summer 2003. By then, a common plan was laid down for the coup that was coming.

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Act 2: Diplomatic coercion

On the French side, the operation was supervised by Régis Debray and Véronique Albanel. The latter is listed as president of the "Universal Brotherhood" which carries out charitable action in Haïti, linked with the catholic church. Albanel is also the sister of Dominique Galouzeau de Villepin, France’s foreign secretary, and the wife of French airforce general Baudoin Albanel.

(( My note: Shades of Napolean's sister, Pauline Leclerc, who went to Haiti to restore slavery in 1804 - At the last moment Bonaparte changed the command, putting his brother-in-law, Leclerc, at the head, a sign of the importance he attached to the venture. Pauline, Leclerc’s wife, and their son went with the expedition. She carried musicians, artists, and all the paraphernalia of a court. Slavery would be re-established, civilization restarted, and a good time would be had by all. More about that here: http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/43a/379.html

On July 15, 2003, Andre Apaid <4>, a former financial handyman of the Duvalier regime <5> and the leader of Group 184 <6>, started raising the pressure, with a meeting organized in a slum devoted to Aristide, the Cite Soleil. Apaid asked for aid and protection from France, who provided him with armed escorts, and the presence of French embassy first secretary Stephane Grumberg. As hoped and planned, the meeting soon turned into riot, leaving 6 dead and 40 wounded by gunfire. Witnesses blamed French guards as solely responsible for the slaughter, which of course was denied by the embassy <7>.

On December 17, 2003, at 3 pm, Regis Debray showed up at the presidential palace to demand that elected president Jean-Bernard Aristide resign. This was refused, and was followed a few days later by the public release by Debray and Villepin-Albanel of their report to Foreign secretary Dominique de Villepin. The report noted: "Let us not fool ourselves. The resignation of President Aristide will not make the country more prosperous overnight, nor will it make it more productive." (p. 35). "Many persons imagine rivalry exists where there is in fact complementarity , and though our means of influence are not the same, they can and must add up, for the good of Haiti. It may be the President’s task, or at least the Foreign Affairs Minister’s, to define from the beginning, at the best level, the methods and spirit of this combination. A stronger implication in Haïti could indeed not run against the interests of the United States, but should operate in a well-balanced and cautious spirit." (p. 52). To sum up, the goal was to overthrow Aristide to defend the common interests of a large American empire and a small French empire. However, following the Iraq crisis and in a context of growing German-French alliance in Europe, Berlin also had to be brought onside in this joint effort, and also find its interest for its tiny empire. The report continued: "One cannot help thinking of the advantages, not only symbolic, that would be brought by opening a common French and German diplomatic mission in Port-au-Prince, which would naturally echo, on the other side of the Atlantic ocean, by opening of French-German missions, for example in Windhoek, Namibia, or elsewhere" (p. 57). The United States and France put pressure on various Caribbean and Latin American states to not take part in the the 200th aniversary ceremonies of the "first Negro republic of America" <8>, held on 1 January, 2004, in Port-au-Prince. Only South African president Thabo Mbeki defied the great powers by attending it.

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More of this Thierry Meyssan's great article here: http://www.voltairenetwork.net/article7.html

















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Meanwhile, in France, a lawyer is preparing a complaint for "complicity in abduction" against four people connected with the Foreign Ministry, Concannon said.

He identified them as: Thierry Burkard, France's ambassador to Haiti; Yves Gaudel, the former ambassador; Regis Debray, president of a commission on French-Haiti relations; and Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin's sister, Veronique. She and Debray visited Aristide in December to demand his resignation, according to his French lawyer, Gilbert Collard.

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French Foreign Ministry spokesman Herve Ladsous said he had no comment on the lawyers' plans. He did not respond to a question about the role of de Villepin's sister at the ministry, saying only that several "qualified personalities" worked with Debray's commission.

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http://www.recorder.ca/cp/World/040310/w031059A.html