US investigating whether Aristide had drug ties
Sunday, April 4, 2004
MIAMI, USA (AFP): Prosecutors are
investigating whether Haitian former president Jean Bertrand Aristide took
millions of dollars from drug traffickers who moved cocaine through his
impoverished nation, The Miami Herald reported Saturday.
"It's in the early stages," one law enforcement source told The Herald. "It's
a bit premature to say we've got anything yet. But you're not wrong if you say
that's where we're going." The report quoted
officials in Florida and Washington as saying investigators had been briefed
on reports that relatives of Aristide and his wife, Mildred, hold nearly 250
million dollars in European banks. The officials added, however, that there is
no indication yet whether the funds actually exist.
Haiti's Justice Minister Bernard Gousse meanwhile said Friday he planned to
set up a commission next week to investigate allegations against Aristide
"from misuse of government funds to human-rights abuses."
Aristide's Miami lawyer Ira Kurzban attributed the investigation to politics:
"After kidnapping President Aristide, the Bush administration is not content
to simply end democracy in Haiti -- they need to politically assassinate
Aristide." Aristide was flown out of Haiti to
Africa on February 29 after a three-week insurgency by armed rebels who
steadily advanced across his country, the poorest in the Americas.
US forces escorted the former president from his official residence and
provided the aircraft that carried him out of the country, while France --
Haiti's former colonial ruler -- has played a key role in setting up an
interim government after Aristide's departure.
The former leader has repeatedly said he was threatened and made to leave by
US and French agents. He is currently staying in nearby Jamaica despite
arrangements for him to take up temporary exile in Nigeria.
The United States maintains Aristide willingly negotiated terms of his
departure and signed a resignation letter.
Leaders of the Caribbean Community have rejected Haiti's interim government
and repeated a call for a UN investigation into the departure of Aristide.
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