23531: (Chamberlain) Aristide says only dialogue will end Haiti mayhem (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

     By John Chiahemen

     JOHANNESBURG, Oct 20 (Reuters) - Exiled former Haitian President
Jean-Bertrand Aristide on Wednesday angrily denied accusations he was
fomenting violence in his homeland and accused Haiti's interim leader of
brutally suppressing dissent.
     Gang and political violence has killed more than 50 Haitians in the
past two weeks.
     "Latortue, stop the lying, stop the killings," Aristide said in a
statement from South Africa directed at Prime Minister Gerard Latortue.
     "True dialogue is the only solution (in Haiti). With the lives of
millions at stake, public officials must act responsibly," he said in the
statement, faxed to Reuters in Johannesburg
     Aristide has been in Pretoria since May after he was forced into exile
in February in what he says was a U.S.-engineered coup.
     The statement was his first public reaction to Latortue's blistering
attack last Sunday in which he accused South African President Thabo Mbeki
of allowing Aristide to direct a violent campaign by his supporters in the
Caribbean country.
     Latortue repeated the charges on Monday, telling Reuters: "President
Thabo Mbeki has not made enough effort to prevent Aristide from using the
South African hospitality to destabilize Haiti."
     Aristide did not address the allegations against him directly, but
fired his own salvo against the prime minister.
     He said Latortue had admitted in an Oct. 1 broadcast that security
forces had fired on demonstrators. "De facto prime minister Gerard Latortue
acknowledged that he is a killer," Aristide said.
     "We fired on them. Some died, others were wounded, and others fled,"
he quoted Latortue as saying in the broadcast.
     Aristide also accused Latortue of fomenting unrest "in allowing
soldiers of the disbanded brutal army to take charge and remain in charge
of entire areas of the country and his sanctioning of their use of
violence."
     "During these past eight months thousands of Haitians have been killed
in defence of democratic principles," he said.
     The South African government, which continues to recognise Aristide as
Haiti's rightful president, on Monday dismissed Latortue's accusations
against Mbeki.
     "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," Deputy Foreign Minister Aziz Pahad said in a prepared statement
read on national television.
     South Africa gave Aristide refuge after he was deposed, 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.
     Latortue's comments reignited domestic opposition to Aristide's stay
in South Africa, and two opposition parties called for an investigation
into whether he was indeed inciting violence in Haiti from the safety of
South Africa.