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Pacifica’s Democracy Now!
Exclusive.
NEW YORK, March 1–Haitian President
Jean-Bertrand Aristide says he was
kidnapped and forcibly removed by US security
from Haiti, according to
multiple sourcesinterviewed by Pacifica Radio.
Congressmember Maxine Waters told Pacifica’s
flagship news program
Democracy Now!that she received a phone call from
the Haitian president
this morning and Aristide says that he was
“kidnapped” and taken by force
to the Central African Republic.
“He’s surrounded by military. It’s like he is in
jail, he said. He says he
was kidnapped,” said Waters.
Waters told Democracy Now! host Amy Goodman
Aristide had been threatened
by what he called US Embassy diplomats. According
to Waters, the deputy
chief of mission at the US embassy in
Port-au-Prince, Luis Moreno, and
other US officials reportedly told the Haitian
president that if he did
not leave Haiti, paramilitary leader Guy Philippe
would storm the palace
and Aristide would be killed.
Waters says that Aristide told her that “the coup
was completed by the
Americans.” The California congressmember said
the US “also disabled his
American security force that he had around him
for months now.” Waters
said that she received the call from Aristide at
9am EST. Aristide and his
wife Mildred were not told where they were being
taken and are presently
being held against their will, Waters said.
TransAfrica founder and close Aristide family
friend Randall Robinson also
received a call from the Haitian president early
this morning and
confirmed Waters account. Robinson says he spoke
to Aristide on a cell
phone that was smuggled to the Haitian president.
Robinson told Democracy Now that Aristide
“emphatically” denied that he had
resigned. “He did not resign,” he said. “He was
abducted by the United
States. A democratically elected president,
abducted by the United States
in the commission of an American induced coup.
This is a frightening thing
to contemplate.”
On Democracy Now!, Robinson recounted Aristide’s
description of his
removal from Haiti:
“The soldiers came into the house and ordered
them to use no phones and to
come immediately. They were taken at gunpoint to
the airport and put on a
plane,” said Robinson. “They have no freedom. The
president asked me to
tell the world that it is a coup, that they have
been kidnapped. That they
have been abducted.”
Broadcast quality MP3s of the interviews with
Rep. Maxine Waters and Randall
Robinson are available at www.democracynow.org.
Media outlets are welcome
to use the interviews as long as they credit
“Democracy Now!.”
Visit http://www.democracynow.org throughout the
day for the latest
developments.