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Rumours about a Washington-Paris plotted coup to oust Arisitide flooded world press as the former Haitian president said, from his exile in Africa, that he had been hijacked by US marines. No matter the case, the new geopolitical scenario in the Caribbean intimidates "hostile" countries in Latin America. Shortly after former Haitian president Jean Bertrand Arisitide landed in the Central African Republic, he said he had to resign under pressure of US marines in Port Au Prince, who then forced him into a plane. According to his testimony, later confirmed by two US congressmen, Aristide and his closer collaborators were...

Caricom leaders who met in emergency session in Jamaica say the reports surrounding the departure of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide from Haiti are contradictory and require no less than an investigation under the auspices of the United Nations which they hope would "clarify the circumstances leading to the relinquishing of the presidency of Haiti by president Aristide". The leaders are hoping if such an investigation does take place, the former president will be allowed to testify if he wants to. Caricom chairman Jamaica Prime Minister PJ Patterson says from all that is on the table now, it is clear Aristide did...

<p>House Democrats yesterday hammered State Department officials on their policies in Haiti and some accused the Bush administration of conspiring with opposition forces to oust Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.</p> <p>Democrats on the House International Relations Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere called the administration's "inaction leading to Mr. Aristide's resignation" an affront to democracy and denounced the negotiation process.</p>

<p>PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) - Haiti's key rebel leader promised Wednesday his forces would lay down their arms after 1,000 U.S. Marines began patrolling the impoverished capital to restore order and prepare for the arrival of international peacekeepers.</p> <p>If Guy Philippe, a rebel boss and former police chief, can make good on his vow, it would mark the end of the rebellion that broke out Feb. 5, drove President Jean-Bertrand Aristide into African exile Sunday and left at least 130 Haitians dead.</p>

<p>Democratic presidential front-runner John Kerry yesterday called for an investigation into statements by former Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide that he was kidnapped at gunpoint and removed from power by U.S. troops over the weekend.</p> <p>"I think there ought to be some investigation of it," the Democratic senator from Massachusetts said yesterday on NBC's "Today." "I have a very close friend in Massachusetts who talked directly to people who have made that allegation. I don't know the truth of it. I really don't. But I think it needs to be explored, and we need to know the truth of what happened."</p>

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti, March 3 (Reuters) - Haiti's rebel leader said on Wednesday he was disarming his forces and pulling them off the capital's lawless streets, where gunfights had erupted three days after the president was driven into exile. "We have decided to lay down our arms," said Guy Philippe, one day after announcing that he was chief of the military and police in defiance of the United States, which is heading a U.N.-authorised mission to restore order in the country. "The Front from now on has no men patrolling the streets," Philippe said, referring to the rebel forces. He said...

Lagos Worried by the diplomatic implications of former Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide's allegation that he was kidnapped and ousted by United States troops, Central African Republic (CAR), where he is staying at the moment, has warned him to stay silent for now. In Haiti, rebel leader, Guy Philippe who entered the capital Port-au-Prince Monday declared himself the head of Haitian army formerly disbanded by Aristide. Aristide, who resigned Sunday and arrived in CAR on a flight arranged by the US government, said he was forced to leave by the American military, a claim dismissed by Secretary of State Colin Powell...

Annan Urges Long-Term International Commitment To Haiti Security Council Approves Multinational Force POSTED: 11:34 p.m. EST March 2, 2004 UNITED NATIONS -- U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan is urging a long-term international commitment to Haiti, saying it could take years to stabilize the country. On Sunday, the U.N. Security Council approved deploying a multinational force to restore order in the Caribbean country after its president fled. Ten years ago, U.S. forces restored Jean-Bertrand Aristide's elected government to power after a military coup. Annan says he hopes "this time the international community will go in for the long haul and not a...

<p>Why is anyone surprised at events in Haiti? The left's darling, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, a corrupt dictator, has behaved as he always has - as a coward ("Heroes In & Aristide Out," March 1).</p> <p>Aristide was famous for his brutality and his corruption.</p>

<p>March 3, 2004 -- Rebel leader Guy Philippe yesterday declared himself the new chief of Haiti's military - as brutal former dictator Jean-Claude "Baby Doc" Duvalier said he wanted to return from exile.</p> <p>A day after his ragtag forces took the capital of Port-au-Prince and forced dictator Jean-Bertrand Aristide to flee, Philippe told a news conference, "I am the chief."</p>

Some of the same people who urged President Bush to stay out of Iraq a year ago have criticized the administration sharply for not intervening sooner in Haiti. Haiti and Iraq pose quite different challenges to both the international community and the United States. But if there’s a common lesson to be learned, it is that interventions followed by elections, while necessary, are not sufficient. In bleak soil, democracy can take root only with a prolonged effort on the part of people both inside and outside the country to forge democratic institutions. With regard to Iraq, the United States invaded...

28/02/2004 09:07 Erika Gibson Pretoria - A South African air force plane will leave for Haiti early next week to support the country's government. The Boeing 747 is expected to leave as early as Tuesday morning after Police requested the flight. On board the plane would be 5 000 bullets, 200 smoke grenades and 200 bullet-proof vests, according to a document in local newspaper Beeld's possession. In South African terms, R-1 rifles are old-fashioned, but according to specialists, they are similar the French FN-rifles still being used by Haiti police. Foreign Affairs spokesperson Ronnie Mamoepa could neither confirm or deny...

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti - Another day of burning barricades did not cause much alarm yesterday morning when I set out to detail Haiti's torment, but by midday, I was part of the story, surrounded by angry men with guns and jagged rocks the size of basketballs. We had approached the barricades all morning long and there was nothing particularly ominous about this one near Rue Monsignor Guilloux. No flaming tires - just a neat row of big rocks that had forced our rented Montero sport-utility vehicle to a halt. I had been on my cell phone talking to my colleague, photographer...

02/28/04 - White House Bush Administration Thinks Haiti's Aristide Must Go The Bush administration is signaling Haiti's embattled president it's time to step aside. As rebel troops menace Port-au-Prince, Press Secretary Scott McClellan says the administration still seeks a peaceful political settlement to weeks of bloodshed.

Wyclef Jean Voices Support For Haitian Rebels 02.25.2004 5:50 PM EST Wyclef Photo: Columbia Wyclef Jean voiced his support for Haitian rebels on Wednesday, calling on embattled Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide to step down and telling his fans in Haiti to "keep their head up" as the country braces itself for possible civil war. "The country's in an uproar, it's not safe. But for the safety of the country and to stop the violence, it has to be a situation where he steps down," Jean, who was born in Croix-des-Bouquets, Haiti, told MTV News. "If the president steps down, there...

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti - The street corner executions and other turmoil that raged through Haiti's capital came to an abrupt halt on Saturday, apparently on the order of embattled President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. Saying that Aristide controls the militants who've inflicted death and pain on the capital, French officials for the first time called without equivocation for his resignation. "The time has come, Aristide must go. He must resign," a senior official at the French Foreign Ministry told Knight Ridder. French officials said Panama was willing to grant Aristide asylum. Panamanian officials said they'd consider such a request. By Saturday, Aristide still...

STANDING BY Ignore Haiti? Tell That to Politicians in Florida By CHRISTOPHER MARQUIS ASHINGTON — Ten years ago, a former Haitian priest named Jean-Bertrand Aristide lived down a heavily guarded hallway from Attorney General Janet Reno in a Washington apartment building. He strummed a guitar to relax, lived the life of a monk and waited for the end of exile. He had a legion of followers - mostly dirt-poor peasants - back in Haiti, where he had been elected president but had been ousted in a coup. So for nearly three years, waiting to see whether the West would support...

<p>PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — President Jean-Bertrand Aristide left Haiti on Sunday, bowing to pressure from a rebellion at home and governments abroad, U.S. and Haitian officials said.</p> <p>The Bush administration said it welcomed Aristide's departure and said it was in the best interests of Haiti.</p>

PORT-AU-PRINCE : President Jean Bertrand Aristide fled Haiti on Sunday in the face of an armed revolt and world pressure, with an international force including US and French troops expected in the violence-wracked Caribbean state this week. Aristide, 50, increasingly isolated after months of bloody unrest in the Western hemisphere's poorest country, resigned and fled to the neighboring Dominican Republic, officials said. Supreme Court chief justice Boniface Alexandre assumed interim power. "My resignation will avoid bloodshed. Life for everyone death for no one," Aristide, the firebrand priest turned politician, said in a a farewell statement written in Creole and read...