20159: radtimes: U.S. Scolds Aristide for Saying He Still Leads Haiti (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: radtimes <resist@best.com>

U.S. Scolds Aristide for Saying He Still Leads Haiti

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20040308/ts_nm/haiti_usa_dc_3

Mon Mar 8, 2004

DALLAS (Reuters) - The White House on Monday scolded ousted Haitian
President Jean-Bertrande Aristide for insisting he was still the president
of his Caribbean country and warned him not to stir up divisions there.

  "Mr. Aristide has resigned his office and has left the country. And now
the Haitian people are involved with grasping democracy and moving forward
on an interim government," White House spokesman Trent Duffy told reporters
traveling with President Bush (news - web sites) here.

"And that's where the focus should be right now. And any comments that
would stir up more division are not helpful, as the Haitian people move
toward a greater democracy," he added.

Aristide earlier repeated his accusations -- which the United States denies
-- that he was abducted by U.S. forces when he left the country a week ago.

Speaking at a news conference in the Central African Republic where he is
in exile, Aristide suggested there should be a peaceful resistance in his
country to what he called the U.S. "occupation" of Haiti.

"I am the elected president and I remain the elected president," Aristide
said. "I am pleading for the restoration of democracy."

The Bush administration says it helped Aristide depart Haiti but the
decision to go was his own.

.