23494: (Chamberlain) S.Africa guest Aristide not behind Haiti ... (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

     By Alistair Thomson

     JOHANNESBURG, Oct 18 (Reuters) - South Africa rounded on Haiti's
interim leader on 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 organise violence in
another country'," Deputy Foreign Minister Aziz Pahad said.
     Latortue accused Mbeki on Sunday of allowing Aristide to direct a
violent campaign by his supporters in the Caribbean country, the poorest
nation in the Americas.
     On 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 destabilise 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 destabilisation 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.

  (additional reporting by Joseph Guyler Delva in Port-au-Prince)