20715: (Chamberlain) Haiti's Aristide looking at asylum options, says aide (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

     By Horace Helps

     KINGSTON, Jamaica, March 23 (Reuters) - Exiled former Haitian
President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, offered temporary asylum by Nigeria, is
looking at his options and will make a decision soon on where he goes, a
spokesman said on Tuesday.
     Aristide, forced into exile from his Caribbean country on Feb. 29 by
an armed revolt and U.S. pressure to leave, has been in Jamaica for the
last week on a temporary visit.
     The former president initially fled to the Central African Republic.
On Monday, Nigeria said it was prepared to grant Aristide temporary refuge
following a request by the Caribbean Community regional group.
     "He is still looking at all his options, thus he has not decided if he
will accept the offer from Nigeria," said Huntley Medley, who is acting as
a spokesman for Aristide.
     "He is expressing thanks to Nigeria, which now joins a few other
countries which have offered to allow him to stay there," Medley said in a
telephone interview.
     Medley declined to name the other countries that have made offers. One
is Venezuela, where President Hugo Chavez said last week his country did
not recognize the new government in Haiti and Venezuela's doors were open
to Aristide.
     The Jamaican government is hosting Aristide for a stay expected to
last up to 10 weeks to allow the former president and his wife to be
reunited with their two young daughters.
     But Jamaica came under fire from the new Haitian prime minister,
Gerard Latortue, who said allowing Aristide back into the region would
stoke tensions among supporters who want him back in power, and was also
criticized by the United States.
     Prime Minister P.J. Patterson, who currently chairs the Caribbean
Community, Caricom, welcomed Nigeria's offer and said it arose from
discussions with members of Caricom and Nigerian President Olusegun
Obasanjo's government.
     "For a variety of reasons, the Government of Jamaica, with the consent
of former President Aristide, has been engaged in efforts to establish a
choice of alternatives, should it become necessary or desirable for him and
his family to be temporarily located elsewhere," Patterson said in a
response obtained by Reuters.
     "In this regard, we are extremely grateful for the readiness of
President Obasanjo to offer suitable facilities for temporary relocation in
Nigeria ... In the meantime, it is expected that the Aristides will
continue to enjoy a peaceful family reunion in Jamaica," Patterson said.
     Aristide insisted from exile in the Central African Republic that he
was still Haiti's president and said that when he left he was abducted by
U.S. forces. Washington denied the charge, saying it helped him leave as
armed rebels moved in on the Haitian capital last month.
     Jamaica, rattled by the lack of support from Washington for a
democratically-elected president, has nevertheless told Aristide he cannot
use the island as a political platform to try to return to power.
      The former Haitian president, once a champion of Haiti's emerging
democracy but in recent years accused by his foes of despotism and
corruption, is staying at a government house in the northeast Jamaican
village of Lydford.