Amy Goodman: Aristide’s Return to Haiti: A Long Night’s Journey Into Day

[marmar]

from truthdig:




Aristide’s Return to Haiti: A Long Night’s Journey Into Day

Posted on Mar 22, 2011
By Amy Goodman


Late at night on March 17, 2011, former Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide boarded a small plane with his family in Johannesburg, South Africa. The following morning, he arrived in Haiti. It was just over seven years after he was kidnapped from his home in a U.S.-backed coup d’etat. Haiti has been ravaged by a massive earthquake that killed more than 300,000 people and left a million and a half homeless. A cholera epidemic carried in by United Nations occupation forces could sicken almost 800,000. A majority of the population lives on less than a dollar a day. Now, Aristide, by far the most popular figure in Haiti today and the first democratically elected president of the first black republic in the world, has returned home.

“Bon Retou Titid” (good return, Titid, the affectionate term for Aristide) read the signs in Port-au-Prince as thousands flocked to accompany Aristide from the Toussaint L’Ouverture Airport to his home. L’Ouverture led the slave uprising that established Haiti in 1804. I was able to travel with Aristide, his wife, Mildred, and their two daughters from Johannesburg to Haiti on the small jet provided by the government of South Africa. It was my second flight with them. In March 2004, the Aristides attempted to return from forced exile in the Central African Republic, but never made it back to Haiti. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and other U.S. officials warned Aristide to stay away from the Western Hemisphere. Defying such pressure, the Aristides stopped in Jamaica before traveling to South Africa, where they remained until last weekend.

Just before this Sunday’s election in Haiti, President Rene Preval gave Aristide the diplomatic passport he had long promised him. Earlier, on Jan. 19, U.S. State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley tweeted, referring to Aristide: “today Haiti needs to focus on its future, not its past.” Aristide’s wife, Mildred, was incensed. She said the U.S. had been saying that since they forced him out of the country. Sitting in the plane a few minutes before landing in Haiti, she repeated the words of an African leader who criticized the past abuses of colonial powers by saying, “I would stop talking about the past, if it weren’t so present.”

Mark Toner, the new State Department spokesman, said last week: “Former President Aristide has chosen to remain outside of Haiti for seven years. To return this week could only be seen as a conscious choice to impact Haiti’s elections.” ........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/aristides_return_to_haiti_a_long_nights_journey_into_day_20110322/

[Peace Patriot]

1. Thanks for this post! "Bon Retou, Titid” !!! nt

[bertman]

2. Indeed. Let's hope he does influence the election. For the better. REC. nt