ANC denounces U.S. and France
By Monica Moorehead
Righteous anger in response to the forced
ouster of the democratically elected president of Haiti,
Jean-Bertrand Aristide, will not go away, even though the U.S.
and French governments wish it would.
The president of South Africa, Thabo Mbeki, attended the
bicentennial celebration of Haiti's independence from slavery
earlier in January. South Africa reportedly sent a shipment of
military equipment to help the Haitian government defend itself
from counter-revolutionary forces, but the coup occurred before
its arrival.
Mavivi Myakayaka-Manzini, African National Congress head of
international affairs, issued a statement on March 5 regarding
the crisis in Haiti entitled "We cannot support the violent
removal of democratically elected leaders." The ANC official
wrote, "On Sunday, Feb. 29, a United States plane flew
President Jean-Bertrand Aristide out of Haiti to the Central
African Republic. He had neither requested to be moved out of
Haiti nor asked that he should be transported to the Central
African Republic.
"Rather, for some days before the banishment of the elected
president of Haiti, leaders of the U.S. government had joined
the French government and the Haitian opposition parties in
demanding that President Aristide should resign. In this
regard, whether intentionally or not, these governments which
had differed sharply over the question of Iraq, sided with
groups that had treasonably taken up arms to overthrow the
democratically elected government of Haiti and subvert the
constitutional order.
"When it flew President Aristide out of Haiti, having
closely cooperated with the French government on planning and
executing this banishment, the U.S. government was giving
expression to its resolve to effect regime change in Haiti,
regardless of the wishes of the government and people of
Haiti."
Manzini stated further, "All Africans throughout the world
continue to draw inspiration from the great victory of African
slaves in Haiti in 1804, which led to the establishment of the
first Black Republic. Equally, they are deeply concerned that
this historic home of African liberation has not seen sustained
stability, democracy and development since its
emancipation."
Reprinted from the March 18, 2004, issue of
Workers World newspaper
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
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