Four years ago today, democratically-elected President Jean-Bertrand Aristide was removed forcibly from his residence in Port-au-Prince by U.S. Marines and taken to Africa.
Democracy Now! on March 1, 2004 reported the events in an interview with U.S. Representative Maxine Waters, who had spoken with Aristide on the phone:
AMY GOODMAN: Did President Aristide say whether or not he resigned?It's very difficult to find independent, objective news about what has happened in Haiti since. But THIS SEARCH is a good starting point. You'll learn about the attack on, and imprisonment and exile of Father Gerard Jean Juste and his relief operation, the soccer-game massacre, the rigged election of 2006 where the people of Haiti more-or-less foiled the U.S.-Canada-France-Brazil-designed plan to bury Aristide's Lavalas Party, and a thousand other stories that are reported only in the most bigoted way, if at all, in most American media.
MAXINE WATERS: He did not resign. He said he was forced out, that the coup was completed.
AMY GOODMAN: So again to summarize, Congressmember Maxine Waters, you have just gotten off the phone with President Jean Bertrand Aristide, who said he believes he is in the Central African Republic.
MAXINE WATERS: That’s right, with French speaking officers, he’s surrounded by them and he’s in this place called the Palace of the Renaissance and he was forced to go there. They took him there.
Today is the Third International Day in Solidarity with the People of Haiti. We demand
- End the US/UN Occupation
- Free the political prisoners
- No more killings and sexual abuse of the poor by UN troops, police and paramilitaries under police control
- President Aristide must be free to return to Haiti
- No more "disappearances"
- Launch an independent inquiry into the February 29, 2004 coup and forced removal of President Aristide
- Perpetrators of the coup and massacres of the poor must be brought to justice
This is yet another blot on U.S. foreign policy. It's a deep, historical wound. Hardly anyone in the U.S. knows or cares.
