The Exiled former president of Haiti this morning claimed he was forced to leave his country by Americans and Haitian troops.
"I called this coup d'etat in a modern way, to have modern kidnapping. They were not Haitian forces. They were [unintelligible] and Americans and Haitians together, acting to surround the airport, my house, the palace," Mr Jean-Bertrand Aristide told CNN in a telephone interview, according to a transcript.
According to Mr Aristide, he signed documents relinquishing power because he feared violence would erupt if he did not comply with demands made by US agents.
"And then, despite of diplomatic conversations we had, despite of all we did in a diplomatic way to prevent them to organise that massacre which would lead to a bloodshed, we had to leave and spent 20 hours in an American plane."
Mr Aristide's allegation from the Central African Republic that he had been kidnapped in an American coup d'etat, has been denied by US officials as baseless nonsense.
Last night, armed rebels and former militia who helped oust Mr Aristide entered Haiti's capital as a contingent of about 200 US marines secured the Caribbean country's main airport, unpacked gear and began their latest mission to restore order in the poorest nation in the Americas.
Haiti was convulsed by an uprising that began on February 5th when an armed gang took over the northwestern city of Gonaives and was later joined by former soldiers and paramilitaries.