17652: Lemieux: Reuters: S.Africa seeks to quash row over Mbeki Haiti trip (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: JD Lemieux <lxhaiti@yahoo.com>

  NEWSDESK

06 Jan 2004 13:46:12 GMT
S.Africa seeks to quash row over Mbeki Haiti trip

By Andrew Quinn

PRETORIA, Jan 6 (Reuters) - South Africa sought on Tuesday
to quash controversy over President Thabo Mbeki's trip to
Haiti and denied reports its officials had been shot at
there.

The director-general of Mbeki's office, Frank Chikane, also
said the trip was not meant to buttress Haiti's government,
accused by the opposition of abuses.

Mbeki, the only foreign head of state to attend Haiti's
January 1 bicentenary, came under criticism at home,
notably after news reports that a South African helicopter
and security personnel were fired upon on Thursday in the
city of Gonaives. Chikane told a news conference on Tuesday
the reports were incorrect and the result of "deliberate
disinformation" spread about Mbeki's trip.

"It is quite clear that somebody intended to disinform,"
Chikane said, without elaborating.

Police spokesman Selby Bokaba, who had confirmed to Reuters
details of the supposed helicopter attack, issued a
statement correcting his account of the incident.
Communications problems with personnel in Haiti had led to
the wrong information being released, he said.

"We wish to place on record that no South African
helicopter was shot at, and not even a single shot was
fired at the South African contingent in Haiti,"
Intelligence Minister Lindiwe Sisulu said in a statement on
Tuesday.

Mbeki's Haiti trip turned into a public relations nightmare
as the South African opposition accused Mbeki of boosting
Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, who has been
blamed for political abuses in the impoverished Caribbean
nation.

Gunfights and violent protests marred the January 1
celebrations of Haiti's 1804 independence from France.
Thousands of opposition supporters have demonstrated daily
since September against Aristide.

Chikane repeated on Tuesday that Mbeki's visit was to mark
the 200th anniversary of the world's first black republic
and had no political implications for Aristide's
government.

"That presence had nothing to do with supporting one group
over another," Chikane said, adding that South Africa was
ready to provide whatever help it could to resolve Haiti's
problems.


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