03-06-2004, 03:16 PM
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#57 (permalink)
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Insane
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More from your article:
Quote:
Although the country was considered unstable, Refinger said it really wasn't a combat area.
"The threat of rebels didn't really happen until the first of the year," he said. "Most of the time we were protecting (Aristide) from people who loved him too much."
Thousands of people would show up at public events threatening to crush the president with sick children in the belief that somehow the former Catholic priest would cure them.
A lot of people also hated Aristide, seemingly to Refinger because the president came from the poor, lower class.
"It never really came to Port-au-Prince," Refinger said. "We saw some demonstrations and started hearing about it in Gonaives and Cap Haitien. The police got pretty overwhelmed, especially in the small towns, but Port-au-Prince is probably 80 percent pro-Aristide."
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From the Independent, a British newspaper:
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Mr Aristide disputes this portrayal of events. "They were telling me that if I don't leave they would start shooting, and be killing in a matter of time. They came at night ... There were too many. I couldn't count them," he said from Bangui, Central African Republic.
Other witnesses have supported Mr Aristide's claim. An elderly caretaker at the residence described similar events while yesterday an American missionary added his weight to claims that the Haitian leader was forced out. Father Michael Graves, an Orthodox missionary from New Jersey who has preached in Haiti for 18 years, told The Independent from Port-au-Prince: "I have spoken to many witnesses who said the President was kidnapped. Police officers at the Presidential Palace said that he was escorted out at gunpoint. They forced him to sign something - this evidently is the statement they have that they say is his resignation."
A senior bodyguard of Mr Aristide also said the former president was forced to leave the country early on Sunday by heavily armed foreign soldiers. The security man, 35, is in hiding in Port-au-Prince for fear of his life. He said the soldiers were "white, I think American, but to be honest they could have been Canadian. I couldn't really tell the difference. They were in tropical civilian clothes but wearing flak jackets and carrying assault rifles." He told his story through a mutual friend and said he was sure he would be assassinated by the victorious Haitian rebels, if found.
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http://news.independent.co.uk/world/...p?story=497303
Last edited by hammer4all; 03-06-2004 at 03:20 PM..
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