Reparation!...What beautiful schools, universities and hospitals we will be able to build for our children!...How much food we will have in abundance! - Jean-Bertrand Aristide

I didn’t leave Haiti because I wanted to leave Haiti. They forced me to leave Haiti. It was a kidnapping, which they call coup d’etat or [inaudible] …forced resignation for me. It wasn’t a resignation. It was a kidnapping and under the cover of coup d’etat...I did not resign. I exchanged words through conversations, we exchanged notes. I gave a written note before I went to the press at the time. And instead of taking me where they said they were taking me in front of the Haitian press, the foreign press, to talk to the people, to explain what is going on, to call for peace. They used that note as a letter of resignation, and I say, they are lying...We talked with them somehow in a nice, diplomatic way to avoid bloodshed, we played the best we could in a respectful way, in a legal and diplomatic way. Because they that told me that they were going to have bloodshed. Thousands of people were going to be killed, including myself. As I said, it was not for me, because I never cared about me, my life, my security. First of all, I care about the security and lives of other people. I was elected to protect the life of every single citizen. So, that night I did my best to avoid bloodshed and when they took me, putting me in their plane, that was their plan. My strategy was then all I could [do] to avoid bloodshed.

On behalf of the Haitian people, I extend again our profound gratitude to all of our friends outside Haiti who have supported our struggle through the years, and particularly to all of those who mobilized, pressured and worked to make the restoration of democracy in 1994 a reality.

When I see my people there is a question that always arises. How can they survive with so little? How do they create hope where there is no hope? How do they create a way where there is no way? This way that the poor are creating, where there is apparently no way, is what we call the third way.