24127: (pub) Chamberlain: Haiti's PM seeks Aristide's help to end violence (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

     By Joseph Guyler Delva

      PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti, Jan 21 (Reuters) - Haiti will send an envoy to
South Africa to ask ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide and the
Pretoria government for help restoring stability and preparing for
elections, the interim prime minister said on Friday.
     Gerard Latortue said his government would welcome initiatives by
African diplomats to help negotiate an end to a wave of violence between
pro- and anti-Aristide forces that has killed at least 240 people since
September.
     It was the first time any Haitian official publicly expressed the need
to talk to Aristide as a means to bring peace to the impoverished country.
Latortue wants Aristide to urge his supporters to halt the violence.
     "The special envoy that will have to go to Pretoria will meet with
ex-President Aristide and also with (South African) President (Thabo) Mbeki
so that they may say how they see the situation and give the country a
chance," Latortue told Radio Tropic FM.
     Latortue encountered heavy resistance from other Haitian political
players, sources close to the prime minister said. Parts of Haiti are still
controlled by the rebels and former soldiers who drove out Aristide.
     South African Vice President Jacob Zuma, who was attending a U.N.
summit on small island states in Mauritius last week, said then that South
Africa was ready to participate in efforts to resolve Haiti's political
turmoil, if asked to do so.
     Aristide fled Haiti in February 2004 after a monthlong armed revolt
and amid U.S. and French pressure to quit. He took refuge in South Africa,
but his supporters, especially in Haiti's slums, demand his return.
     Scores of Aristide supporters marched on Thursday through the
Port-au-Prince slum of Bel-Air to call for Aristide's return and said there
could be no dialogue or reconciliation without his participation.
     Mbeki has been harshly criticized by Aristide's opponents for warmly
welcoming the former Haitian leader they accused of despotism and
corruption.
     Latortue's U.S.-backed interim government was appointed to lead the
country through a transition culminating in elections by the end of 2005,
with a new president due to take office in February 2006.
     Rights groups have accused Haiti's interim authorities of serious
human rights abuses against Aristide allies, which the government has
denied.