Haiti-Aristide Pledges to Return
7-15-1994
^Aristide Speech Broadcast to Haiti as Psychological War Intensifies With AM-UN-Haiti, AM-Haiti-Starvation AP Photos PAP101-102
^By ANDREW SELSKY
^Associated Press Writer
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) _ With hundreds of battle-ready Marines looming offshore, U.S. military planes circling above broadcast a speech Friday by Haiti's exiled president, who promised: "The day of my return is not far off."
"I am returning to reinstate security for all Haitians to live in peace," President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, who was ousted in a 1991 military coup, said in the recorded message.
He didn't say how he would return, but Washington has not ruled out an invasion to oust army rulers and restore Aristide, Haiti's first freely elected leader.
Despite a threat of an American invasion, the U.S. Embassy appeared to be the only mission in Port-au-Prince preparing for possible war.
Two Marines armed with automatic rifles crouched behind sandbag emplacements on the roof of the embassy, which is ringed by a 10-foot concrete wall topped in places by recently installed razor wire.
Many Haitians said they felt Washington was just saber rattling and not planning an attack, despite the 2,860 Marines aboard warships off Haiti.
"I don't think they're going to invade. It's too quiet here," said a Haitian business executive, reflecting a widely felt sentiment. He asked that his name not be used.
No increase in Haitian forces was visible in the capital. Sandbags were stacked just two feet high on some streets leading to army headquarters and the presidential palace.
Aristide's broadcast was the inauguration of Radio Democracy, coordinated by the U.S. Defense Department. The signal, sent by two EC-130 planes that took off from Eglin Air Force Base in northwest Florida, was received weakly in Port-au-Prince on the AM and FM bands.
No Haitians were seen on the streets openly listening to the broadcast, which could have made them targets of pro-military thugs.
Aristide, who lives in exile in Washington, said in his 50-minute speech in Creole that once he returns he would "toll the bell of reconciliation."
"Soldiers you have nothing to worry about," he said.
He urged Haitians not to flee by boat but instead to remain and help force out the repressive army rulers.
"The harder we pressure the coup leaders, the quicker they will go," Aristide said, without specifying how the pressure should be applied.
The one-hour broadcast, which began at 6:30 p.m., included 10 minutes of Haitian music.
The broadcasts will "make sure the Haitian people know they have not been abandoned by the international community," William H. Gray III, President Clinton's special adviser on Haiti, said in Washington.
U.S. officials will also speak to Haitians on the station, which will broadcast daily, said embassy spokesman Stanley Schrager.
Haiti's military rulers will consider the broadcasts "a threat to their illegitimate (government)," Schrager suggested.
The U.S. Navy has dispatched 16 ships carrying about 4,700 sailors and the Marines off Haiti. They are in addition to 15 Coast Guard cutters patrolling for refugees escaping on small boats.
The USS Mount Whitney, an amphibious vessel that can serve as a command center for military action, was en route to the region.
In New York, U.N. Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali on Friday projected that it would take U.N. 15,600 personnel, including combat troops, to help restore democracy in Haiti once the military government departs. His report didn't mention removal of the army rulers through a possible U.S. invasion.
Refugees continued to flee repression and poverty aboard rickety boats. The Coast Guard intercepted 60 Haitians on Friday morning and has picked up more than 3,000 Haitians fleeing their country in the past week.
They are given the choice of being returned to Haiti or taken to "safe havens" Washington is setting up in several Caribbean countries.
Schrager, meanwhile, said U.S. Embassy investigators had determined that 12 Haitian men, whose newly buried bodies were found Tuesday, had been shot by "local security or local security-related groups."
No motive for the killings had been established, he said.
About 100 international human rights observers were kicked out of Haiti on Wednesday by the government, leading to fears that summary executions and other abuses would increase.
Schrager said U.S. diplomats would investigate reports of violations, traveling in groups for their protection. But he said only up to 30 officials could be available for such work on a rotation basis, and that the U.S. Embassy was considering cutting its staff.
The Organization of American States announced from Washington that the joint OAS-U.N. civilian mission to Haiti will fly from Guadeloupe island to the Dominican Republic on Saturday to resume monitoring rights violations in neighboring Haiti. However, it wasn't clear how they would operate from across the border.
Haiti's economy has been wrecked by a U.N. oil and trade embargo aimed at forcing the army from power. It has hit Haiti's poor the hardest.
In Miami, the founder of a U.S. relief organization said Friday as many as 1,000 children a month are dying of hunger in Haiti.
"People are so desperate to save their babies from starving to death that they are walking into hospitals with them and just leaving them," said Larry Jones, founder of the Oklahoma City-based Feed The Children.
"People leave them there hoping that someone will have mercy on them and take them home and feed them, but no one does because they can't feed their own children," Jones said.
^Aristide Speech Broadcast to Haiti as Psychological War Intensifies With AM-UN-Haiti, AM-Haiti-Starvation AP Photos PAP101-102
^By ANDREW SELSKY
^Associated Press Writer
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) _ With hundreds of battle-ready Marines looming offshore, U.S. military planes circling above broadcast a speech Friday by Haiti's exiled president, who promised: "The day of my return is not far off."
"I am returning to reinstate security for all Haitians to live in peace," President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, who was ousted in a 1991 military coup, said in the recorded message.
He didn't say how he would return, but Washington has not ruled out an invasion to oust army rulers and restore Aristide, Haiti's first freely elected leader.
Despite a threat of an American invasion, the U.S. Embassy appeared to be the only mission in Port-au-Prince preparing for possible war.
Two Marines armed with automatic rifles crouched behind sandbag emplacements on the roof of the embassy, which is ringed by a 10-foot concrete wall topped in places by recently installed razor wire.
Many Haitians said they felt Washington was just saber rattling and not planning an attack, despite the 2,860 Marines aboard warships off Haiti.
"I don't think they're going to invade. It's too quiet here," said a Haitian business executive, reflecting a widely felt sentiment. He asked that his name not be used.
No increase in Haitian forces was visible in the capital. Sandbags were stacked just two feet high on some streets leading to army headquarters and the presidential palace.
Aristide's broadcast was the inauguration of Radio Democracy, coordinated by the U.S. Defense Department. The signal, sent by two EC-130 planes that took off from Eglin Air Force Base in northwest Florida, was received weakly in Port-au-Prince on the AM and FM bands.
No Haitians were seen on the streets openly listening to the broadcast, which could have made them targets of pro-military thugs.
Aristide, who lives in exile in Washington, said in his 50-minute speech in Creole that once he returns he would "toll the bell of reconciliation."
"Soldiers you have nothing to worry about," he said.
He urged Haitians not to flee by boat but instead to remain and help force out the repressive army rulers.
"The harder we pressure the coup leaders, the quicker they will go," Aristide said, without specifying how the pressure should be applied.
The one-hour broadcast, which began at 6:30 p.m., included 10 minutes of Haitian music.
The broadcasts will "make sure the Haitian people know they have not been abandoned by the international community," William H. Gray III, President Clinton's special adviser on Haiti, said in Washington.
U.S. officials will also speak to Haitians on the station, which will broadcast daily, said embassy spokesman Stanley Schrager.
Haiti's military rulers will consider the broadcasts "a threat to their illegitimate (government)," Schrager suggested.
The U.S. Navy has dispatched 16 ships carrying about 4,700 sailors and the Marines off Haiti. They are in addition to 15 Coast Guard cutters patrolling for refugees escaping on small boats.
The USS Mount Whitney, an amphibious vessel that can serve as a command center for military action, was en route to the region.
In New York, U.N. Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali on Friday projected that it would take U.N. 15,600 personnel, including combat troops, to help restore democracy in Haiti once the military government departs. His report didn't mention removal of the army rulers through a possible U.S. invasion.
Refugees continued to flee repression and poverty aboard rickety boats. The Coast Guard intercepted 60 Haitians on Friday morning and has picked up more than 3,000 Haitians fleeing their country in the past week.
They are given the choice of being returned to Haiti or taken to "safe havens" Washington is setting up in several Caribbean countries.
Schrager, meanwhile, said U.S. Embassy investigators had determined that 12 Haitian men, whose newly buried bodies were found Tuesday, had been shot by "local security or local security-related groups."
No motive for the killings had been established, he said.
About 100 international human rights observers were kicked out of Haiti on Wednesday by the government, leading to fears that summary executions and other abuses would increase.
Schrager said U.S. diplomats would investigate reports of violations, traveling in groups for their protection. But he said only up to 30 officials could be available for such work on a rotation basis, and that the U.S. Embassy was considering cutting its staff.
The Organization of American States announced from Washington that the joint OAS-U.N. civilian mission to Haiti will fly from Guadeloupe island to the Dominican Republic on Saturday to resume monitoring rights violations in neighboring Haiti. However, it wasn't clear how they would operate from across the border.
Haiti's economy has been wrecked by a U.N. oil and trade embargo aimed at forcing the army from power. It has hit Haiti's poor the hardest.
In Miami, the founder of a U.S. relief organization said Friday as many as 1,000 children a month are dying of hunger in Haiti.
"People are so desperate to save their babies from starving to death that they are walking into hospitals with them and just leaving them," said Larry Jones, founder of the Oklahoma City-based Feed The Children.
"People leave them there hoping that someone will have mercy on them and take them home and feed them, but no one does because they can't feed their own children," Jones said.
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