20723: (Chamberlain) Aristide exile (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

   By BERT WILKINSON

   ST. JOHN'S, Antigua, March 23 (AP) -- Ousted Haitian President
Jean-Bertrand Aristide will not take Nigeria up on its offer of temporary
asylum, an associate said Tuesday.
   Randall Robinson, an African-American activist, also accused the United
States of exerting diplomatic pressure to shuttle Aristide far away from
the Caribbean.
   Robinson said he had spoken with Aristide, who is in Jamaica, by
telephone after Nigeria Monday offer of asylum.
   "He has not asked and does not want to go to Nigeria," Robinson said by
phone from his home on the nearby island of St. Kitts. "He has not
requested to do so."
   Robinson is a former president of TransAfrica, a Washington-based group
that monitors U.S. policy toward Africa and the Caribbean.
   Aristide left Haiti Feb. 29 as rebels threatened to attack the capital
of Port-au-Prince. He later said U.S. troops kidnapped him, a charge denied
by the United States.
   Aristide arrived in Central African Republic on March 1 and stayed there
with his wife until March 15, when he flew to Jamaica to be with his two
daughters. Robinson accompanied Aristide on that flight.
   Jamaica's government has said it will allow Aristide and his wife,
Mildred, to remain for 10 weeks while they seek permanent asylum.
   Interim Haitian Prime Minister Gerard Latortue, the United States and
others have criticized Jamaica for accepting Aristide, saying his presence
in the Caribbean could raise tension in Haiti.
   "Were elections to be held in Haiti tomorrow, Aristide would be
overwhelmingly re-elected," Robinson said. "This fear has enraged the U.S.
and has caused it to behave undemocratically and awfully."
   Unofficially, Jamaican officials say Aristide wants to go to South
Africa, which has indicated it would accept the former leader.