24212: Hermantin ( news) Aristide hope to return to Haiti

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: leonie hermantin <lhermantin@hotmail.com>

Miami-Herald

Posted on Tue, Feb. 01, 2005




Aristide seeking return as president

Though adjusting to exile in South Africa, Jean-Bertrand Aristide said he
hopes to return to Haiti as president.

By JACQUELINE CHARLES

Miami Herald


Ousted Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide is adjusting to exile in
South Africa, teaching psychology at a local university and enjoying staples
of an African and Haitian diet, but he still yearns to return home as
president.

''He would like the nations -- the white nations -- to recognize him as a
president who still has a mandate, the same way [South Africa] President
[Thabo] Mbeki has,'' the Rev. Gerard Jean-Juste, a former South Florida
Haitian activist, said Monday. ``He would like a return to constitutional
order in Haiti.''

MEETING WITH ARISTIDE

Jean-Juste, who now lives in Haiti, recently returned from South Africa,
where he and Miami Haitian activist Lavarice Gaudin spent eight hours with
Aristide during a five-day visit. It was the first face-to-face meeting
Aristide's Haitian supporters have had with their embattled leader since he
was forced to resign from office on Feb. 29 amid a bloody revolt.

Aristide claims he was kidnapped by the United States and sent out of the
country. The U.S. State Department denies the claim.

''President Aristide is doing great physically,'' Jean-Juste told a roomful
of Aristide supporters, who crowded the headquarters of Veye Yo, the Little
Haiti-based pro-Aristide grass-roots group Jean-Juste founded.

But he said the former Haitian president is saddened by what is happening in
his homeland, where violence has become an almost daily occurence and many
of his top lieutenants, including former Prime Minister Yvon Neptune, remain
jailed.

''He wishes there could be peace in Haiti, a stop to the repression and
killings, and a move toward dialogue,'' Jean-Juste said. ``Regardless of the
oppression, he is pleased by the hope -- the determination within the people
to stand for democracy. They are calling for democracy to return. Not only
him, but the democracy that has been stopped on Feb. 29.''

PARTY IN DISTRESS

Jean-Juste said that since Aristide's departure, his Lavalas Family party
has been unable to rally the masses like it used to and hold large meetings
throughout the country.

Indeed, the political party has been slowly unraveling, with many of its
leaders jailed, in exile or in hiding in Haiti and its members split between
those who want to move forward with elections and those who don't.

Lavalas -- Creole for torrential rain -- also has been plagued by internal
conflict, with different individuals claiming to speak on behalf of the
party and Aristide.

''We would like to sit down and exchange ideas,'' Jean-Juste said about
Lavalas. ``We are not able to have mass meetings everywhere in the
country.''

Lavalas, he said, has made it clear to Haiti's interim government that it
will only participate in the upcoming elections if certain demands are met.
Those demands include the return of Aristide and the release of all
political prisoners.

If these conditions are not met, Jean-Juste said, ``We won't call them
elections. We will call them selections.''

UNWAVERING AIMS

Determined to mobilize party supporters, Jean-Juste said he will now speak
on behalf of Lavalas. His first order of business involves stepping up the
pressure against President Bush, via Aristide supporters in the United
States, to return Aristide to power in Haiti.

''Haiti has as president Jean-Bertrand Aristide until Feb. 7, 2006,'' he
said.