OUR COUP:

U.S. Sees No Rebel Role in New Haiti Government (CHRISTOPHER MARQUIS, 3/03/04, NY Times)

A day after armed rebel leaders swept into Haiti's capital in triumph, the Bush administration declared Tuesday that the paramilitaries would not play a role in the country's political reconstruction and urged them to lay down their arms and go home.

Administration officials said they would seek to reach an understanding with the Haitian political opposition and leaders loyal to former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, who left for exile on Sunday morning. There is no room in that effort, officials said, for gun-toting bands of former army and police officers who deposed Mr. Aristide.

"The rebels do not have a role in the political process," said Richard A. Boucher, the State Department spokesman. "The rebels need to disband and go back to their homes. And I want to be quite clear that that's our position." [...]

One of the most prominent rebels, Guy Philippe, declared himself head of the new Haitian Army, a reincarnation of a much feared institution that Mr. Aristide abolished in 1995.

Just in case anyone still has any delusions about our decisive role in Haiti over the past few days. Mr. Philippe paid a visit to the U.S. Embassy today and when he left he declared that not only was he not the new chief of the army but that for the good of the nation his forces were turning in their arms and he was going home.

MORE:
Cajoled or abducted? Mystery of Aristide's final hours: American officials and the exiled Haitian leader give conflicting accounts of events leading up to his dramatic flight from Port-au-Prince (Gary Younge and Sibylla Brodzinsky, March 3, 2004, The Guardian)

Jean-Bertrand Aristide was sitting in his car on the tarmac at Port-au-Prince airport early on Sunday morning waiting for the plane to take him to exile when the US diplomat Luis Moreno tapped on his window.

"Mr President, with all due respect, the plane is 20 minutes away, I really need the letter," Mr Moreno said, meaning Mr Aristide's letter of resignation. Mr Aristide then pulled an envelope from his wife's purse, as she sat stonily by his side.

Once its contents were confirmed, Mr Moreno apologised to Mr Aristide and his wife. "I said I was very sorry to see things end this way," he said.

Mr Aristide replied in English: "Well, that's life."

About an hour later he was gone, zig-zagging the skies in search of asylum and finally landing in the Central African Republic.

This, at least, is the United States' official version of Mr Aristide's last hours as told by Mr Moreno, a career diplomat who has been in Haiti for the past two and a half years.

Mr Aristide's account could not be more different. He says he was abducted, forced by the US to leave his own country at gunpoint.

Posted by Orrin Judd at March 3, 2004 5:35 PM