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Mr. Powell’s Credibility on Haiti

A BUZZFLASH READER COMMENTARY
by Sigrid Smith

Personally, I believe that the US removed Mr. Aristide forcibly, as he and his friends report. I think that it was a coup and that the rationale comes from the hard right beliefs of Roger Noriega and Otto Reich. They think that Aristide, along with Chavez of Venezuela and others in Central and South America, are leaning towards Cuba and Fidel Castro. Reich would like to rid Latin America and the Caribbean of all Left leaning regimes. But let’s put that aside. Let’s stipulate that Aristide did leave of his own free will.

According to the State Department, Aristide asked for assistance and specifically, and most importantly, he asked for two things: a choice of where to go and for protection of his personal property if he were to leave Haiti. “We gave him answers to these questions, positive answers.” according to Powell.

Here is how Secretary of State Colin Powell describes his version of what happened:

The Ambassador consulted with me and Assistant Secretary Noriega by telephone. We told him he could take the call and see what President Aristide had in mind. And he talked about protection of property, protection of his personal property, his -- property of some of his ministers, and would he have some choice as to where he was going if he decided to leave.

We gave him answers to these questions, positive answers. And then in the course of the evening, other conversations took place. He said he wanted to think about it, he wanted to speak to his wife, which he did. And he came back to us and said that it was his decision, based on what his security people were also telling him about the deteriorating situation, that he should leave. And we made arrangements for his departure. He was -- he wrote a letter of resignation. I think he might have been in touch with other people. And a leased plane was brought in and he departed at 6:15, thereabouts on Sunday morning. [From the State Department webpage: http://www.state.gov/secretary/rm/30040.htm].

This morning in the newspapers, we see stories of the looting of the home of the Aristides. There are family photos strewn about, a grand piano in the front yard and people picking through his belongings. [Independent].

On Aristide’s request that he be able to choose where to go, he asked to go to South Africa, but he was sent to the Central African Republic, a violent dictatorship subject to coups itself. Several South African ministers have indicated that he would have been welcome there, had they been asked. They were not. If I were one who prayed, I would pray for the safety of the Aristides in this violent place.

When we went into Iraq, we didn’t protect the nuclear facilities that had been sealed by the IAEA and as a result yellowcake was strew about the villages. We said that places like Tuwaitha were too large to protect the perimeter, so looting resulted. There is no such problem with the Aristide house. The Marines could have secured the house immediately. Mr. Powell says that we had made a specific promise to Aristide that his belongings would be protected and that Aristide made his decision to leave based on that promise. If Powell cannot be believed when he says that he will protect something as simple as the family photos, how can we believe anything else that he says?

Sigrid Smith
North Haven, CT

A BUZZFLASH READER COMMENTARY