19671: loveayiti-Aristide irks African hosts (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: love haiti <loveayiti@hotmail.com>


I think he's going to get himself thrown out


Aristide irksAfrican hosts
 From AFP
March 03, 2004
HAITI'S deposed president Jean-Bertrand Aristide was proving to be a headache
for his Central African Republic hosts as the world decided what to do with
him.

"He's already started to embarrass us," government spokesman Parfait M'bay
said. "He's scarcely been here 24 hours, and he's causing problems for Central
African diplomacy."

Booted out of his Caribbean island state as Haiti was in the throes of a bloody
rebellion, the former priest arrived in the Central African Republic on Monday
and told CNN that he was ousted in a coup orchestrated by Washington.

Central African officials have said Aristide was stopping off en route to exile
elsewhere -- probably South Africa, where he enjoys good relations with
President Thabo Mbeki.

The government of the deeply impoverished, landlocked former French colony gave
Aristide and his wife Mildred a red carpet welcome, housing them in a luxurious
villa and also letting him have a phone, M'bay said.

A cabinet meeting called for Tuesday to discuss Aristide's future was postponed
for a few days since President Francois Bozize and Prime Minister Celestin
Gaombalet were not in the capital.

"It's up to ex-president Jean-Bertrand Aristide to say if he wants to stay in
Central Africa or if he wishes to go to South Africa. That way, we will know
what moves we have to take," said M'Bay.

But a spokesman for Mbeki said Tuesday that South Africa will not take a snap
decision on granting asylum to Aristide, preferring instead to discuss the
issue with other countries and the United Nations.

"If a decision of that nature were to be taken, it would have to involve quite
a number of countries throughout the world, the UN, the African Union and so
on," Mbeki's spokesman Bheki Khumalo said on public radio.

Issues to be thrashed out would include "funding, the issue of security and
protection, the issue of what kind of diplomatic immunity ... And it is not an
easy thing that can be done overnight... it takes a bit of time," Khumalo said.

With elections in South Africa due next month, the opposition has been swift to
challenge the government on taking Aristide in.

Authorities in Bangui, where Bozize came to power in a coup in March last year
and hopes to gain widespread recognition and restore credibility with
international donors, stressed that Aristide had been allowed in on purely
"humanitarian grounds".

A source close to the foreign ministry said that he was not expected to remain
in the country for more than a few days.

Though irksome, Aristide was also welcomed for drawing international attention
to the Central African Republic, which has empty coffers and where Bozize
ousted a president, Ange-Felix Patasse, whose government was riddled with
corruption and constantly up against strikes and army mutinies.

M'Bay said Aristide's presence "was a boon for us", since it had given the
country its most media widespread coverage since Jean-Bedel Bokassa declared it
an empire and staged an outlandishly extravagant coronation to make himself its
emperor in the 1970s.

"The hardsell coverage in the press over the forced resignation of the former
dictator has allowed Central Africa to brush up its image as a country of
refuge and help," said independent daily Le Confident.

In an article headlined "An ousted president in Bangui", the paper said: "We
can now claim that the Central African Republic ranks among the world's great
countries."

Another daily, Le Democrate, said: "Jean-Bertrand Aristide has allowed the
national transition government to position itself alongside Washington," which
flew him into exile after three weeks of unrest in Haiti claimed scores of
lives.

Aristide was "free to come and go as he pleases," M'bay said.

French Defense Minister Michele Alliot-Marie echoed that statement and also
alluded to the fact that Aristide was just passing through Bangui.

"If he wants to leave he can leave," she said, insisting that Aristide was in
Central Africa for his own protection, and "not imprisoned" there.



______________________________________________________________________________________
Frustrated with dial-up? Lightning-fast Internet access for as low as
$29.95/month.