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The deposed President of the Caribbean island nation of Haiti has charged that he was forced out of office by a United States-orchestrated coup d’etat, and that view has been affirmed by Bay Area Congressmember Barbara Lee (D-Oakland). On Sunday of this week, under pressure from a rebel army which Lee characterized as “thugs,” Jean-Bertrand Aristide left Haiti under U.S. military escort. From temporary asylum in the Central African Republic, Aristide told CNN that “I was told that to avoid bloodshed, I’d better leave.” Aristide repeated that charge in telephone conversations Congressmembers Maxine Waters and Charles Rangel (both members of the Congressional Black Caucus) as well as with Randall Robinson, a respected African-American expert on African affairs. 

Earlier this month, while Aristide was still in power but with rebel forces causing chaos throughout the country, Congressmember Lee wrote a scathing letter to Secretary of State Colin Powell, charging that the Bush Administration was supporting the overthrow of a democratically-elected government. “Our failure to support the democratic process and help restore order looks like a covert effort to overthrow a government. There is a violent coup d’etat in the making, and it appears that the United States is aiding and abetting the attempt to violently topple the Aristide Government. With all due respect, this looks like ‘regime change.’ How can we call for democracy in Iraq and not say very clearly that we support democratic elections as the only option in Haiti?” 

On Monday, with rebels moving on the Haitian capital and rioting and looting beginning to engulf several cities in the Caribbean nation, members of the Congressional Black Caucus met in New York with United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan to see what could be done to stabilize the situation. Following that meeting, U.S. Congressmember Barbara Lee (D-Oakland), spoke by telephone with the Daily Planet about the Haitian crisis. 

Q. What was the purpose of the meeting with the Secretary General today, and what was the result? 

A. We wanted to talk to him about the international community’s role leading up to the coup and then moving forward. It’s very important that the UN provide that kind of security and humanitarian assistance, development assistance. I’m one of the greatest supporters of the United Nations. But personally told the Secretary General that I was extremely disappointed that the United Nations did not come in earlier and pass a security council resolution authorizing international security forces to nip this stuff in the bud before it got any further. 

Q. What was his response? 

A. His response was that he has member states [in the United Nations that he has to answer to]. But he did say that I was correct. 

Q. Is what we’re seeing in Haiti a U.S.-sponsored military coup? 

A. That’s my assessment. And I’ve watched this, not only last week and the week before, but for the past several years. I co-chaired the Haiti Task Force of the Congressional Black Caucus, and I’m on the [House of Representatives] International Relations Committee. So this is an issue that I know fairly well. I think that by giving a wink and a nod to these thugs—and that’s what they are—murderers and paramilitary folks carrying U.S.-made weapons, then I think we have a responsibility in [these events]. I think we did help overthrow [the Aristide] government. 

Q. I read that the leader of the rebel military forces is a U.S. citizen. 

A. Yes. Andy Apaid. Yes. He has a U.S. passport. He’s presently a U.S. citizen. If you look at who [his associates] are [the Group of 184], they’re very unsavory, all of them. They have ties to the drug industry. They are very, very scary kind of people. And the White House [has] circled the wagons around Aristide, not recently, but years ago, as the Bush Administration moved forward on this. 

Q. Did Aristide resign? 

A. The House International Affairs Committee is going to have a hearing on [the Haitian situation], beginning on Wednesday. We have to get to the bottom of this. I talked to President Aristide last week, and Mrs. Aristide—Mildred—also, and they indicated to me then that under no circumstances were they resigning. Under no circumstances. 

Q. So you weren’t part of that telephone conversation with him today? 

A. No. But I talked to Congresswoman Waters right after that. And she told me [that he denied resigning]. And I also talked to Congressman Rangel. And then I heard Secretary Powell and Rumsfeld and their spokespeople saying that these were conspiracy theories. So hopefully these hearings that we’re going to have, and these investigations, [will uncover the truth]. We’ve got to move forward and make sure that the Haitian people don’t suffer any more because of the lack of food and humanitarian assistance. But we’ve got to see what happened and what our country was engaged in. 

Q. When the rebels started their attack around the first of February, in your opinion, what should the Bush Adminstration have done at that point? 

A. Let’s go back to before February 1, because for the last three years, the Bush Administration has embargoed and squeezed Haiti on a humanitarian basis. The Administration blocked the release of their funds that they had negotiated, for infrastructure. They made the Aristide government jump through hoops. I’ve seen the Aristide government live up to almost every request that the United States government made before a nickel went down there. It was unbelievable. They really forced the Haitian government into a situation where they were desperate, and the people were desperate. Fast forward to February 1. The rebels, of course, see that this is now their moment. The politican opposition gives them a nod. What should have happened right then is that the Bush Administration should have gone down to Haiti and stopped it right there. [Secretary of State] Colin Powell should have gone down there and told them we were not going to let them do this. 

Q. If we go to this weekend, when the Haitian police forces were collapsing and the rebels had taken over half of the country, what should the Administration have done then? 

A. When I talked to President Aristide last week, [he said that] his request of the Bush Administration was that they needed some international security forces to help secure the country, to beat back these rebels. That didn’t happen. No-one came to their assistance. I told President [Bush] when we met with him last Wednesday that our country should be actively engaged in helping to forge a ceasefire right away. Not just talking about it, but doing it. And making sure that the rule of law was upheld and the Haitian Constitution would be the guiding force as we moved forward. And his response to the entire Congressional Black Caucus was that he couldn’t make a decision on the fly. It was quite unbelievable. 

Q. Do you think that we should have intervened militarily in support of President Aristide? 

A. I don’t think it would have taken military intervention. It would have taken an international security force. I think we could have discouraged the rebels. 

Q. How? 

A. By telling them that we weren’t going to encourage them. They never heard that. I wrote Colin Powell a letter and asked him if the U.S. was destabilizing Haiti, if we were funding the opposition. Didn’t he realize this was a coup in the making? And he publicly said, “We don’t support the overthrow of the President.” And so if that’s the case, why didn’t [the Administration] communicate that to these people to lay down their arms? Now, we’re talking about negotiating with the rebels. And so I said, Mr. Secretary, why are you negotiating with people like this? 

Q. Isn’t that an encouragement of military coups against democratically-elected governments? 

A. Certainly. The Bush Administration has it central in their foreign policy—regime change. This is not isolated. We’re seeing the Bush Administration’s foreign policy play out, right now. Haiti today. Cuba tomorrow, maybe? Venezuela. [The Bush Administration] taps and spouts democracy in areas where they want to see democracy for their interests to prevail, and in other areas, they undermine democracy. This is what they did in Haiti. They undermined democracy. 

Q. Has there been any evidence that any elements in the U.S. government have been giving financial or military aid to the rebels? 

A. No hard evidence. That’s the question. I hope Wednesday that we can uncover some of this. But you know how covert activities go. This is going to take unraveling and unraveling and unraveling. ›