Posted on 03/06/2004 6:33:52 AM PST by PeteFromMontana
Aristide wasn't forced out
March 06,2004
ERIC STEINKOPFF DAILY NEWS STAFF
If Jim Refinger knows one thing it's this: Ousted Haitian president Jean Bertrand Aristide is safe.
There was no kidnapping, as some sources reported. There was no injury. And for Refinger there was no mystery.
Refinger was there. The former Jacksonville police sniper and retired Marine was part of a private security team hired to protect Aristide's inner circle.
"We left with him (but) I won't talk about where we went," Refinger said Friday from his home in Jacksonville where he just returned. "We escorted him safely out.
"Everything was done with the full knowledge and cooperation of the president. There was no forcing the president to go anywhere. We protected our principal without a shot fired and he is safe."
Refinger works for Steele Foundation, a security firm based in San Francisco. The company has protection details all over the world and does industrial security and risk analysis, Refinger said.
Aristide had a presidential protection unit, and a team from Steele mirrored the unit in an inner circle. Refinger's job was running the outer circle that kept the inner circle safe.
"We were protecting the protectors, and we worked closely with the Haitian counter-ambush team," he said.
A good fit
Refinger, 55, seems a natural to train and lead a quick reaction force in Port-au-Prince.
He was a Marine 1st sergeant and worked for 16 years with the Jacksonville police department's special incident response team before retiring in July 2002 and going to work for Steele.
"When I got to the Jacksonville police department I wanted to be on their (special weapons and tactics) team," Refinger said. "I started out as a sniper on the SWAT team and later was a sniper instructor for the police department. Now they probably have one of the better teams in the state."
Little wonder. Refinger was with 3rd Force Reconnaissance Company from the end of 1966 to the end of 1969. He said he received "a little ding in the leg" from North Vietnamese rocket shrapnel before training enlisted recruits as a drill instructor at Parris Island, S.C.
In 1983, he was an adviser to the Lebanese Army before the terrorist bombing at the Beirut International Airport Oct. 23 that year.
Refinger was the senior enlisted member of Fox Company, 2nd Battalion, 6th Marine Regiment, and later first sergeant of Headquarters Company of the regiment before retiring from the Marine Corps in 1986.
In addition to his time as a sniper and sniper instructor at the Jacksonville Police Department, he worked as a patrol officer, narcotics officer and later a patrol supervisor.
After he retired from the department, Refinger's Marine buddy and former Camp Lejeune special incident response team member Mark Moore asked Refinger if he'd work for the Steele.
On speaking terms
While working in Haiti, Refinger has picked up a little of the Creole language, especially terms like "stay back," "kneel," "stand there" and "put your hands behind your back."
"Once you are their teacher in a basic course you become special to them," Refinger said. "We did our best to teach them proper police procedures and to treat people with respect because it reflects on the presidency."
Although the country was considered unstable, Refinger said it really wasn't a combat area.
"The threat of rebels didn't really happen until the first of the year," he said. "Most of the time we were protecting (Aristide) from people who loved him too much."
Thousands of people would show up at public events threatening to crush the president with sick children in the belief that somehow the former Catholic priest would cure them.
A lot of people also hated Aristide, seemingly to Refinger because the president came from the poor, lower class.
"It never really came to Port-au-Prince," Refinger said. "We saw some demonstrations and started hearing about it in Gonaives and Cap Haitien. The police got pretty overwhelmed, especially in the small towns, but Port-au-Prince is probably 80 percent pro-Aristide."
The Shamir or ghost pro-Aristide supporters blocked roads leading into the capital, making it difficult, if not impossible for rebels to enter the city.
Refinger speculated that Aristide may have decided to leave to avoid further bloodshed, but questioned whether it was possible to avoid that in Haiti.
The matter is under investigation, said Refinger, who added that he may be called to testify and, therefore, could not go into details about Aristide's departure.
"We got out slick and fast, before they even knew what was happening," Refinger said. "It wasn't until after it was all said and done that we heard a report about kidnapping, but we knew that wasn't the case."
More help
While Refinger was in Haiti, his wife Dee visited a couple of times, once for 30 days and most recently for four months. The couple was married in November 2002.
"Our first real date was a gun show and our first movie was 'Hamburger Hill,'" said Dee.
What struck them most about Haiti was the poverty. Wild pigs, cows and chickens wandered the streets and countryside. Infant mortality was so high, they said, that families waited a year to name their children in case they didn't survive.
"When you fly over it you can smell the rancid countryside," Refinger said. "The bugs and mosquitoes are bad, the filth comes up over your shoes and people live in that."
The couple also recalled mansions manned by servants who lived in mud huts packed 12 to a room just across the street.
The situation convinced Dee Refinger to help. The couple is sponsoring three children in Haiti.
"They fight to live and survive every day," Dee said.
"There's no middle class in Haiti," Refinger said. "There are haves who have a whole lot and the poor who have nothing."
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