19714: (Hermantin)Sun-Sentinel-No Permanent Asylum Yet for Aristide (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: leonie hermantin <lhermantin@hotmail.com>

No Permanent Asylum Yet for Aristide

By JOSEPH BENAMSSE
Associated Press Writer
Posted March 3 2004, 6:10 AM EST

BANGUI, Central African Republic -- No permanent home has yet been found for
Jean-Bertrand Aristide, a top Central African Republic official said
Wednesday, as the ousted Haitian leader settled into temporary exile in this
impoverished, isolated capital.

"No decision has been taken yet," Foreign Minister Charles Wenezoui told The
Associated Press of the hunt to find a country to grant long-term asylum to
Aristide -- who flew here Monday in a U.S.-arranged jet a day after fleeing
a rebellion in his homeland.

"All we know is that he will continue to stay at the presidential palace,"
said Wenezoui of President Francois Bozize's official residence in Bangui --
a riverside city marked by decades of strife and Bozize's successful
insurgency, which captured the capital in March 2003.

Wenezoui said authorities hadn't switched off phone service in Aristide's
chambers -- despite their irritation at charges he has telephoned media,
lawmakers and activists overseas that U.S. forces kidnapped him from Haiti
and that he's now held captive here.

Authorities have asked Aristide to stop making the allegations, which they
worry could hit the country's ties with America. Aristide has no made public
statements since late Monday and he isn't believed to have ventured beyond
the presidential palace's heavily guarded walls.

"Aristide really likes to read" and has slept a lot, said Wenezoui of the
ex-Haitian president's adjustment to Bangui. "We're about to give him a
television and satellite dish so that he can monitor news around the world."

South Africa has said in principle it's not opposed to taking in Aristide,
but that it hasn't received a formal request. Like the Central African
Republic, it was thought to be troubled by the political and diplomatic
problems that could follow Aristide.

The government of the Central African Republic on Monday denied claims by
Aristide, Haiti's first democratically elected president, that he was being
held prisoner in the presidential palace.

French Defense Minister Michele Alliot-Marie suggested Tuesday that Aristide
was being guarded by French soldiers, but later backtracked. She said French
troops had been in the country training African soldiers, but their mission
"has nothing to do with the presence of President Aristide."

The Central African Republic's Foreign Ministry said earlier it would
investigate Aristide's charges that he was "forced to leave" by the U.S.
military.

Bozize has been courting international support and aid to stabilize his
country of nearly 3.7 million. The U.S. Embassy in Bangui closed on Nov. 2,
2002, as Bozize's rebellion swept through the country.

Although rich in gold, diamonds and other resources, the Central African
Republic nevertheless is habitually unable to pay its civil servants,
helping spark strikes, unrest and coup attempts. The country has weathered
nine coups or coup attempts since independence from France in 1960.



Copyright © 2004, The Associated Press

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