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HAITI INTERIM GOVERNMENT'S LEGITIMACY UNDER FIRE.

Article Excerpt
The exile of Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide waxes ever more regionally polarizing. As Aristide touched down in Jamaica to begin a period of temporary exile, the "interim government" of Haiti withdrew its ambassador from Jamaica.

Aristide flew into Jamaica from the Central African Republic (CAR), to which he insists he was taken against his will by the US (see NotiCen, 2004-03-04). The US government denies his allegations, but evidence of a kidnapping continues to grow. Doubt as to the legitimacy of the installed Haitian government also is growing.

A series of agonizing twists of logic have left more than one official of more than one government in amazement and confusion, as the "international community" plays fast and loose with the concepts of sovereignty and democracy.

Jamaica's Foreign Minister K.D. Knight said he was surprised that Aristide was made to await a decision by the titular head of the CAR government, Gen. Francois Bozize, as to whether he would even be allowed to leave the CAR. "I find that quite strange," he said. "I didn't apprehend there would be any difficulty. I would believe that any delay would be over flight plans."

The delay was not about flight plans. It was, according to witnesses, about negotiating Aristide's release, and, by extension, it lent credibility to Aristide's contention that he was kidnapped. The word kidnapped becomes important in light of the fact that kidnapping is a crime, whereas other phrases used by governments to explain their participation in the president's forced departure were deliberately sanitized descriptions that carried with them de facto immunity from the reach of international law.

Aristide was accompanied on the 17-hour...

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