22191: (Chamberlain) Jamaica-Aristide (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

   By STEVENSON JACOBS

   KINGSTON, Jamaica, May 30 (AP) -- Ousted Haitian President Jean-Bertrand
Aristide left for asylum in South Africa on Sunday, but insisted his stay
there will only be temporary.
   Aristide, who insisted Sunday he remains Haiti's "elected president,"
headed for his third country since leaving Haiti on Feb. 29 on a
U.S.-supplied jet amid an armed revolt against him.
   He first spent three weeks in the Central Africa Republic, then 11 weeks
in Jamaica, and on Sunday left on a South African jet with his U.S.-born
wife Mildred, their two daughters, a brother-in-law and a bodyguard.
   "It will now be our temporary home until we are back in Haiti," Aristide
told a news conference in which he was accompanied by U.S. Rep. Maxine
Waters, a California Democrat and staunch supporter, Miami lawyer Ira
Kurzban and several South African diplomats.
   South Africa has said it will provide a refuge for Aristide until his
personal situation "normalizes" and he can return to Haiti. He will live
under tight security in the capital, Pretoria, at the South African
government's expense -- an arrangement that has angered South Africa's main
opposition party.
   "Ordinary South Africans cannot fathom why they must pay to put up the
former Haitian leader," said opposition leader Douglas Gibson. "Mr.
Aristide should go home."
   After Aristide's departure from Haiti, the United States sent troops
under a U.N. mandate and installed Supreme Court Chief Justice Boniface
Alexandre as president.
   Aristide then charged he was kidnapped from Haiti by armed U.S. troops
-- charges U.S. officials strongly deny.
   The 15-member Caribbean Community refuses to recognize Haiti's
U.S.-backed government and has called on the Organization of American
States to investigate Aristide's accusations.
   Haiti's interim government didn't immediately react publicly to
Aristide's departure.
   Haiti has been in crisis since Aristide's party swept flawed 2000
legislative elections. Major opposition parties boycotted the following
presidential election, won by Aristide though only about 5 percent of
voters participated.
   International donors suspended aid and in the past year the country
became embroiled in increasingly violent confrontations between Aristide
and opposition supporters. Dozens were killed, mainly Aristide opponents,
while police accused of being politicized did nothing.
   Aristide dismissed plans for new elections and accused his opponents of
orchestrating violence against his supporters.
   "Thousands were killed just because they were supporting the elected
president," he said. "They killed them, put them in bags and dropped them
in the sea."
   Estimates of dead from the revolt and its aftermath vary, but
journalists' accounts and tallies at morgues put the toll at about 300.
   With Aristide gone, Haiti's U.S.-backed interim government has launched
an investigation into corruption under his government.
   Aristide on Sunday repeated his denial of U.S. charges that he profited
from drug trafficking and embezzlement.
   "We left Haiti without any money," Aristide said, adding that all his
expenses in Jamaica were covered by the Jamaican government.
   He also called rebel leader Guy Philippe, a former provincial police
chief, a "drug dealer." And he criticized the interim government for
dealing with other rebels convicted of political assassinations.
   Aristide said he has almost finished writing a book in which he will
detail his final days in office and the role he plans to play in Haiti.