21618: (Chamberlain) Aristide supporters demand his return to Haiti (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

     By Joseph Guyler Delva

     PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti, April 29 (Reuters) - Two months after Haitian
President Jean-Bertrand Aristide was forced into exile by an armed revolt,
his embattled supporters on Thursday demanded the international community
allow him to return.
     Pro-Aristide organizations from the sprawling slums of Port-au-Prince
reiterated their claim -- vigorously denied by Washington -- that Haiti's
first democratically elected leader had been ousted by the United States
and France.
     "The U.S. has no right to kidnap our president. We want Aristide back
here in the flesh," Lesly Gustave, a spokesman for the "Little Church"
community, told a news conference.
     Gustave and other "popular organization" leaders spoke at the ruins of
the St. Jean Bosco church, which was burned down in 1988 by thugs loyal to
a then-military dictatorship that wanted Aristide killed as the former
priest celebrated mass.
     They announced they would stage a series of protests starting May 18
to press for his return.
     Gustave said members of Aristide's Lavalas Family party were being
persecuted again following his departure on Feb. 29. He left after a
month-long rebellion by street gangs and former soldiers and was under U.S.
and French pressure to quit.
     "The U.S. and the international community are perpetrating a crime
against democracy and human rights in Haiti today," Gustave told Reuters.
He said the international community, and a 3,600-strong peace force led by
U.S. Marines, had turned a blind eye to crimes against Aristide supporters.
     The United States has denied Aristide's accusations he was forced out
in a "political kidnapping." Secretary of State Colin Powell said on a
visit to Haiti this month that Aristide left voluntarily to avoid a
bloodbath.
     Aristide, a champion of Haiti's poor majority who was regarded by many
in the Caribbean country's wealthy elite as a threat, has been living in
temporary exile in nearby Jamaica.
     He has not commented on the installation of a U.S.-backed interim
administration under Prime Minister Gerard Latortue that is expected to
hand over to a new government after elections in 2005.
     "If it is true President Aristide resigned voluntarily, why couldn't
he stay in the country?" said Marc Antoine, 25, one of dozens of people who
attended the Lavalas news conference at the remains of Aristide's former
church.
     Lavalas leaders have kept a low profile since Aristide fled, fearing
retribution from the former soldiers and ex-death squad leaders who helped
stage the revolt and who have been praised as "freedom fighters" by
Latortue.