Aristide's Story
by Carmen Gentile

His tale is the stuff of bad Hollywood fiction — political plot twists combined with a healthy amount of conspiracy. Very few believe him; they discount his story as the ranting of a disgruntled ex-president. But count me among those that do.

Consider: A third-world leader is under increasing pressure from armed rebels to resign or be forcibly removed from office. Looking to the United States and other international allies for support, the embattled leader finds none, just encouragement to step down for the good of his impoverished, conflict-wracked nation.

Allegations of his misdeeds — corruption and human rights violations — prevent the leader from finding a friend even in liberal-minded France, the country's former colonial ruler. The leader, touted as a man of and for the nation's vast population of poor people, is an island unto himself.

Defiant, he strives to persevere no matter the cost — democracy is as stake, he believes — and no amount of bloodshed in the streets will change his mind.

But back in Washington, the world's power brokers make a decision. It's time take action. Troops are readied for deployment to the tiny island nation in America's back yard, while a special task force is assembled to complete a single, decisive act that will resound on the nation's political landscape for years to come.

Then, in a whirlwind, pre-dawn confusion, the leader is whisked away to the airport, where US embassy personnel and troops await him. He's put on a plane bound for an unknown destination. The fate of his nation is longer in his hands.

For former Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, his tale isn't another one of Hollywood's flights of fancy. Rather, it's his account of what really happened during his final days in office and subsequent departure from Haiti.

And even though I was part of the press corps in the capital, Port-au-Prince, when word broke that Aristide was gone, my memories of that day are rife with surrealist images a la David Lynch and violence reminiscent of the "The Killing Fields."

According to Aristide, the events of that day were a well-orchestrated ruse by the United States to usurp his authority. Since his Feb. 29 departure, Aristide has maintained that he neither voluntarily left Haiti nor resigned the presidency. He claims, instead, that he was "duped" by US officials into going to the airport, at which point he was more or less forced onto a plane bound for the Central African Republic.

Since then, Washington has repeatedly denied the ex-Haitian president's accusations, with US Secretary of State Colin Powell calling Aristide's story "absurd." But during and in-flight interview with the Washington Post while en route from the CAR to Jamaica — where he will reportedly spend 8 to 10 weeks with his family — Aristide gave greater detail to his Hollywood-esque version of what happened that day.

He recalled how he had been speaking with US Ambassador to Haiti James Foley on Feb. 28 about ways to end the bloodshed that had erupted a month before in the country's north. Armed rebels calling for Aristide's resignation had been sweeping the Caribbean nation, taking over every town and city in their path. More than 100 people had already died.

The following day, thinking he was receiving a US escort to a news conference to appeal for peace, Aristide said he was accompanied by embassy officials and soldiers to the airport and forced onto a plane for the African country. "I know there were American military and maybe other militaries from other countries. I cannot say only Americans," Aristide said. An aide to the ex-president and an unidentified American security guard paid to protect Aristide supported his claim, the Post reported.

Aristide went on to say that despite all of it he still considered himself the president of Haiti, and he hoped that his presence in Jamaica — just over 100 miles from the coast in Haiti — would be a comfort to his supporters. "I do believe many Haitians who are poor or suffering, or in hiding, think that if I am closer physically, it's better for them instead of being far away," he said.

Did Washington finally grow fed up with Aristide's perceived incompetence and decide to pull the plug on his administration? Though Aristide will likely never gather enough evidence to force the Bush administration to admit any undiplomatic meddling, there does seem to be enough proof out there to fuel his charge for years to come. In addition to the eyewitness testimonies, there is the fact that some 50 Marines were deployed to Port-au-Prince a couple of weeks before Aristide left. While officially there to protect the embassy and other US interests, a force that size would also serve well to surround the Haitian leader and convince him to board a charted plane bound for Africa ... no questions asked.

Suspicion in Washington has prompted some Capitol Hill lawmakers to call for an investigation into precisely what role the United States played in Aristide's departure. Any investigation won't likely get very far, particularly in the coming months as lawmakers busy themselves with elections. Coupled with the muddle in Iraq and the war on terrorism, the question of whether Aristide was yanked from power on the orders of President Bush will likely fall by the wayside.

Nevertheless, there are more than a few people who continue to believe his story — and so do I.