Haiti's Aristide to Travel to Jamaica

[Florida_Geek]

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-Jamaica-Aristide.html

Haiti's Aristide to Travel to Jamaica
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Published: March 11, 2004


Filed at 4:15 p.m. ET

KINGSTON, Jamaica (AP) -- Ousted Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide and his wife will travel to Jamaica next week, returning to the Caribbean less than three weeks after fleeing into exile, Jamaica's prime minister said Thursday.

Aristide, ousted Feb. 29 at the height of a popular rebellion, currently is staying in the Central African Republic while seeking long-term asylum somewhere.

Aristide wants to be reunited with his two young daughters, who currently are in New York, Prime Minister P.J. Patterson said. The girls were sent there to stay with the mother of Aristide's American wife, Mildred, for their safety.

Patterson said Aristide was not seeking political asylum in Jamaica, where he will stay for up to 10 weeks.


... end of cut...

IMHO Once in Jamaica he is in a better position to demand his office back.

[Nlighten1]

1. Ya mon!

[bemildred]

2. Getting out of the CAR alive is a good first step. nt

[struggle4progress]

14. Safe arrival in Jamaica would be good

[hedda_foil]

3. BRILLIANT!

I don't know how he pulled it off but the pressure was obviously getting VERY intense. Let's hope his plane survives the trip.

[bemildred]

9. I was speculating that the mess in Zimbabwe

might be relevant, Sud Afrique was allied with CARICOM
with regard to the treatment of Aristide, and it is also smack in
the middle of the mercenary investigation in Zimbabwe and
Equatorial Guinea, it would provide a lot of leverage, and
the timing seems quite coincidental.

[tkmorris]

4. I would assume.......

the the Jamaican government is at least moderately warm towards the Aristides since they are allowing them to travel there but will they allow Aristide to argue his case publicly from there? Jamaica is probably already under pressure to rescind permission to Aristide; things would get very hot indeed for them if Aristide starts holding press conferences demanding reinstatement to office.

[htuttle]

6. Jamaica, along with the rest of the CARICOM nations...

...has been demanding that Aristide be returned to office, and the whole coup investigated by the UN.

So I imagine they will have no trouble with Aristide saying whatever he wants to.

[bemildred]

7. Yup.

And he has offers of asylum, but I expect the plan right
now it to try to send him home. What is interesting is that
he is on his way back.

[tkmorris]

8. Excellent

I knew that many of the Carribean nations have been supportive but hadn't heard anything specific to Jamaica.

Now the job is to make sure that Aristide actually gets covered in the media. I anticipate making lots of phone calls........

[Say_What]

16. Jamaica's PM is chairman of CARICOM

and the two-day emergency meeting was held in Kingston, mon. Here's a quote from PM Patterson last week:

"Despite what we have heard in public and despite what we have learnt in private we simply say that the situation calls for an investigation of what transpired," Prime Minister P.J. Patterson, CARICOM chairman, told journalists at a Jamaica House press briefing.

At the same time, Mr. Patterson reiterated that the Heads of Government have agreed that they are not prepared to deliberate with "thugs and anarchists" parading as a new Haitian Government.

http://www.jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20040304/lead/lead2.html

[Say_What]

19. Kim Ives, editor of the Haitian newspaper, Haiti Progres interviewed

Aristide in his native Creole and was on Democracy Now earlier today. I haven't listened to the entire interview but a couple of points I did pick up were:

--pressure from US started about 12 hours prior to the kidnapping

--US had resignation letter that Aristide REFUSED to sign--thus penning his own conditional letter later

--US Ambassador promised him that they were going to a press conference and instead they helicoptered them to the airport and out of the country

On edit: Had to remove him on Saturday because South Africa had sent weapons to help police against rebels. Weapons were due to arrive on Sunday--now missing. Also, that Venezuela was gonna send help.

Listen to the rest here...

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=04/03/11/1538244

[Chicago Democrat]

5. Some good news finally!

What a crappy day its been.

[Just Me]

10. Some more signs of unification, I hope,...

,...and my prayers for the safety of his children.

I am so ashamed of the corporate cabal that rules this country. I would prefer that cabal bear that shame; but, if unwilling to do so, (which they appear to have no shame about their willingness to lie and covet and kill) I want to witness the operation of rules of law applied to their shameful, illegal acts against democracy.

Shame on the US despots!!! Shame on them!!!

[dax]

11. Ousted ....popular rebellion?? are they nuts ?! nobody believes that

I was listening to NPR which just lies like a rug these days and reporter Haddon?sp in Port-au-Prince was talking about the new government people and how the rebels had destroyed the schools and busses and public institutions but the MArines were going to start interferin to stop the violence because there are so many guns in Haiti-surprise-(notice they dragged their feet so the rebels could execute all the activists and party leaders and other parties over the last week)
He said people are desperate because they are now 85% unemployed but the new government has to get the security situation under control to deal with that. Then the host asked him-so what do the 85% unemployed think about their new government and he said "Oh, they don't recognize it at all they want Aristide to finish his term they are mad that he was spirited away and that's why the security situation is going to be so difficult." I think our press thinks that if they say it often enough that he resigned and everything is going to be ok that it will make it so. How about we arrest the rebels and the HAitians who participated and all the White house goons who set it all up and then release the money owed to Haiti and some bodacious funds for reconstruction of what they had built- and let the man be president-that is clearly what democracy calls for.

[Aidoneus]

12. consider the source

the Times has for decades make its living by lying about such things.

[bemildred]

13. I thought the "slum priest" designation was more imaginative. nt

[otohara]

15. The Peoples of the Caribbean Have Asked For An INvestigation

into Aristide's departure...this is a good thing.

[Chicago Democrat]

17. The only bright news on a terrible day...

:)

[Just Me]

18. The small stone that caused a great fall,...

,...that is how I personally hold Haiti in my heart. Except that, this time, the small stone is a gathering wave and becoming a tsunami of humanity that must flood the deserts of an emotionally-starved peoples.

[eablair3]

20. I like how they describe it as a "visit"

I wonder if the U.S. knew of this "visit" before it was announced by Jamaica?

Maybe Jamaica is forcing the hand. They invite him as a visitor, and he says he wants to go to see his young children. What's the U.S., France and their puppet regime in CAR supposed to do? What else can they do? Nice move by Jamaica and Aristide, if that's how it was planned.

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

21. I wonder if the Jamaican Defense Forces are going to

conduct covert ops in the near future?

Jamaica is the ideal place to launch raids and such on Haiti. It worked for various pirates.

With the confusion in Haiti now, a little destablization here, some sabotauge there, an atrocity or two, or at least rumors of one, and all with Aristide in the time zone and within radio range.

Interesting.