"I don't buy the argument the war was legalised by the Iraqi violation of earlier UN resolutions… the ownership of the resolutions rested with the entire 15-member Security Council and not with individual states… not the UK and US individually."

Again the Bush administration is breaking the law with the ousting of Haitian President Jean Bertrand Aristide. Instead of supporting the democratically elected president Aristide, the United States and other foreign lenders held up some $500 million in aid to the poorest western hemisphere country and gave some $120 million to Aristide’s tiny opposition party Democratic Convergence. While the Haitian economy was collapsing, Aristide’s opposition parties allied themselves with the rebels headed by convicted killer Louis Jodel Chamblain and alleged drug trafficker Guy Philippe and together they took over the country.

President Aristide has stated that US officials told him that rebels were on the way to the presidential palace and that they forced him and his family to board an American plane to take them to exile.

Secretary of state Colin Powell has negated that president Aristide was forced to take the plane and instead has affirmed that Aristide signed his letter of resignation and boarded the plane by his own volition.

I wonder whom we have to believe, however it suffices to say that the Haitian constitution provides for the submission of the eventual president’s resignation to the legislature and not by handing a note to US officials.

What a shame this Bush administration, they undermine the first ever democratically elected Haitian President Aristide, then they break the law and leave Haiti in a state of chaos supervised by the rebel leaders, Louis Jodel Chamblain and Guy Phillipe.

Editor's Note: You might recall Collin Powell is the same fellow who show the UN pictures showing that Iraq was building weapons of mass destruction

References

Pertinent articles published in Ensign

Penketh, Anne and Andrew Grice Blix: Iraq War Was Illegal March 5, 2004 The Independent UK, http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/030604B.shtml

Vermont Multicultural News Danny Glover and Haiti (PDF) November 13,2003,Ed.1, http://www.gbmrc.org/mcnews-2003-11.pdf

Amnesty International UK Haiti: Fears of exodus as known abuser [Louis Jodel Chamblain ] leads rebel group http://www.amnesty.org.uk/deliver/document/15195

AFP and The Times Haiti rebels 'backed by drug money' March 4, 2004 http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,8864023%255E2703,00.html

Birns, Larry and Jill Shelly Haiti Under Secretary Powell’s Tutelage and Control March 8, 2004 Council On Hemispheric Affairs, http://coha.org/NEW_PRESS_RELEASES/New_Press_Releases_2004/04.13_Haiti_Under_U.S._Rule.htm

Charles, Jacqueline HAITI'S BICENTENNIAL. Aristide pushes for restitution from France. Haiti's leader, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, sends France a bill for $21 billion. Many are calling the effort a distraction. December 18, 2003 Miami Herald, http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/7518665.htm

Democracy Now EXCLUSIVE: ARISTIDE SPEAKS TO DEMOCRACY NOW! IN MOST EXTENSIVE ENGLISH-LANGUAGE INTERVIEW SINCE HIS REMOVAL FROM HAITI March 8, 2004 http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=04/03/08/1529222&tid=25#transcript