20806: (Chamberlain) Aristide in exile (later story) (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

   By BERT WILKINSON

   BASSETERRE, St. Kitts, March 25 (AP) -- Ousted Haitian President
Jean-Bertrand Aristide will take permanent asylum in South Africa but not
until it holds general elections next month, Jamaican officials said
Thursday.
   The officials said on condition of anonymity that South African
President Thabo Mbeki's government demanded the delay in Aristide's arrival
because it could be "politically unsettling" before the election.
   South Africa presidential spokesman Bheki Khumalo said there would be no
immediate comment. Opposition leaders have said the government should not
support Aristide, once hailed as a champion of democracy but now accused of
corruption and violence against his opponents.
   Mbeki was among few international leaders to attend Haiti's bicentennial
independence celebrations this year and is known to get along well with
Aristide.
   In the early days of Aristide's exile, South Africa had said it would
accept him permanently if he asked for asylum.
   The 53-member African Union earlier this month criticized "the
unconstitutional way" Aristide was forced from power and urged its members
to help him. The Africa Union pledged "full support to the country that
will agree to grant such asylum."
   In the meantime, Aristide would remain in Jamaica, two high-ranking
government officials said.
   Aristide arrived in Jamaica on March 14 over protests from the United
States and Haiti's new interim government, both of which said his presence
on the neighboring island would increase tension as a multinational
peacekeeping force sought to stabilize Haiti.
   Aristide fled his country Feb. 29 as rebels waging a three-week uprising
threatened to attack Port-au-Prince, the capital.
   Aristide was flown on a U.S.-chartered jet to the Central African
Republic, where the ousted president claimed he was forced from power at
gunpoint by the Americans.
   Many countries have been reluctant to host Aristide, fearing damage from
the diplomatic fallout of his claim.
   U.S. officials say they acted at Aristide's request and probably saved
his life when they put him on a chartered plane. Aristide says he was
kidnapped and never was told where he was being taken.
   Jamaican officials said Aristide refused asylum offers from Venezuela
and Nigeria. The officials spoke on the sidelines of a summit of Caribbean
leaders that opened Thursday in Jamaica.
   At the meeting, Caribbean leaders discussed suspending Haiti from their
regional bloc to protest what was seen as the U.S. role in Aristide's
departure. He was the country's first freely elected president and his
successor was praised by Washington.
   Opening the summit, Secretary-General Edwin Carrington regretted
Aristide's absence, saying it "will no doubt be the first of much
discussion over the next few days."
   Jamaican Prime Minister P.J. Patterson warned that Haiti's crisis cannot
be resolved without the involvement of the 15-nation Carribean Community.
   "Nothing can be achieved without our collective support," Patterson told
leaders.
   Wednesday night, Caribbean foreign ministers held a videoconference with
U.S. officials, including Assistant Secretary of State Roger Noriega, the
top American official for diplomatic affairs in the hemisphere.
   The United States expressed a willingness to work with the Caribbean
Community and agreed with its position that "the rebels ... will play no
part in government or in the military because it would be against U.S.
policy," according to a report from St. Kitts Foreign Minister Timothy
Harris.
   Several Caribbean leaders, as well as human rights groups, have
criticized Haiti's interim Prime Minister Gerard Latortue for hailing the
rebels, who include assassins convicted for massacring Aristide supporters,
as "freedom fighters."
   Rights groups also have expressed shock that Latortue is entertaining
rebel demands that he reconstitute the Haitian army that ousted Aristide in
1991 and murdered, maimed and tortured thousands of Haitians.
   Last week, Latortue said he was suspending Haiti's participation in the
bloc to protest Aristide's arrival in Jamaica at Patterson's invitation.
   "There will be an extensive discussion on Haiti, but at the end of the
day I'm sure we will still be engaged in Haiti. We have a few options as to
how to deal with Haiti," St. Vincent Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves told
The Associated Press before entering talks.
   He is among leaders who have refused to meet Haiti's new leader.
   The Caribbean leaders canceled a scheduled meeting late Wednesday with
Latortue. St. Kitts Prime Minister Denzil Douglas said leaders had been
willing to meet with him if "he had only repudiated the position" toward
the community and Jamaica.
   Douglas said a meeting now appears unlikely for the near future and that
Latortue would not attend the summit.
   Caribbean leaders called for an international inquiry, but Carrington
said a request would have to come from the U.N. Security Council. U.N.
Secretary-General Kofi Annan sent his Haiti adviser, Reginald Dumas, to the
summit.
   Angry Caribbean leaders have refused to participate in Haiti's U.N.
peacekeeping force, noting the Security Council refused their pleas to send
troops in time to save Aristide.
   Under a U.S.-backed plan, Haiti's new government is to prepare
legislative elections, which Latortue hopes to hold in six to eight months.
   No country has ever been suspended from the 31-year-old Caribbean
Community. Haiti was the last nation to join in 2002.