23488: Holmstead: S.Africa: Guest Aristide Not Behind Haiti Mayhem (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: John Holmstead <cyberkismet5@yahoo.com>


S.Africa: Guest Aristide Not Behind Haiti Mayhem
Mon Oct 18, 2004 01:34 PM ET

By Alistair Thomson

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South Africa rounded on
Haiti's interim leader Monday, dismissing accusations
it was allowing Haiti's ousted President Jean-Bertrand
Aristide to coordinate a violent uprising from exile
in South Africa.

"The South African Government takes strong exception
to reported comments attributed to the Interim Haitian
Prime Minister Gerard Latortue accusing President
Thabo Mbeki of failing to respect international law by
allegedly 'allowing a person in his territory to
organize violence in another country'," Deputy Foreign
Minister Aziz Pahad said.

Latortue accused Mbeki Sunday of allowing Aristide to
direct a violent campaign by his supporters in the
Caribbean country, the poorest nation in the Americas.

Monday, he repeated his accusations.

"I think President Thabo Mbeki has not made enough
effort to prevent Aristide from using the South
African hospitality to destabilize Haiti," Latortue
told Reuters in Port-au-Prince.

"We strongly wish that the South African government
takes all the necessary measures to make sure Aristide
does not continue to destabilize Haiti from its
territory."

Gang and political violence has killed more than 50
people in the past two weeks, leaving security forces
struggling to keep control and compounding the effects
of storms and flooding that left more than 3,000
Haitians dead in September.

"South Africa and indeed President Mbeki cannot be
used as a scapegoat for failure by the Interim Haitian
Authorities to bring about peace and stability," Pahad
said in a prepared statement read out to national
television cameras.

South Africa gave Aristide refuge as a government
guest after he was deposed last February, a move Pahad
said was agreed with Caribbean bloc Caricom in
consultation with the United Nations, United States
and Haiti's former colonial ruler France.

"The South African Government rejects with contempt
the attack on the integrity of President Mbeki and
dismisses the insinuation that its territory is being
used as a springboard by President Jean Bertrand
Aristide to destabilize Haiti through violent means,"
Pahad said in the statement.

"No evidence exists to back up the claim that
President Aristide is involved in any activities aimed
at the destabilization of Haiti," he added.

Mbeki was the only foreign head of state to attend
Haiti's bicentennial celebrations on Jan. 1, marking
the founding of the world's first black-led republic,
against a backdrop of mounting protests against
Aristide's rule.

Latortue's comments have reignited domestic opposition
to Aristide's stay in South Africa, and two opposition
parties called for an investigation into whether
Aristide was indeed inciting violence in Haiti from
the safety of South Africa.

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