24477: (news) Chamberlain: Haiti rebuffs U.N. human rights criticism (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

     By Joseph Guyler Delva

     PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti, March 10 (Reuters) - Haiti's interim government
rejected on Thursday U.N. Security Council criticism about human rights
violations in the troubled Caribbean country, saying the government was
"committed to democracy and the respect of human rights."
     Government officials also played down comments on Wednesday by exiled
former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide in which he said he intended to
return to Haiti as president, saying it was a waste of time to worry about
such a notion.
     In a statement after a briefing on Haiti on Wednesday the 15-nation
Security Council pressed Haiti's government to crack down on human rights
abuses and free political prisoners to help heal the country ahead of
November elections.
     Asked about this and criticism from other quarters including Aristide,
a spokeswoman for interim Prime Minister Gerard Latortue said the
government was not involved in human rights abuses, nor did it condone any
such violations.
     "We firmly reject those allegations. Prime Minister Latortue's
government is committed to democracy and the respect of human rights,"
spokeswoman Yolette Mengual told Reuters.
     Latortue took office a year ago after Aristide fled the country on
Feb. 29, 2004, in the face of a monthlong armed revolt and under U.S. and
French pressure to quit. An election is scheduled for Nov. 13 to elect a
new president due to take office in February 2006.
     The government also played down Aristide's remarks to reporters in
South Africa, where he now lives.
     "We are not going to waste our time minding about Aristide saying he
will come back as president; we know it is not true," Justice Minister
Bernard Gousse told Reuters.
     Officials at the presidential palace said interim President Boniface
Alexandre would hand over power to the next elected president in February
next year.
     "I don't see where Aristide could fit in this schedule. If somehow
Aristide happened to come back he would be arrested and tried," said a
member of Alexandre's office, who asked not to be named.
     Aristide, a former Roman Catholic priest, was seen as a champion of
democracy when first elected in 1990, but in his second term critics
charged he was increasingly corrupt and intolerant of opposition.
     The United Nations authorized a peacekeeping force to help restore
order in Haiti after his ouster, but peacekeepers and the government have
struggled to achieve stability.
     Referring to detentions of supporters of Aristide -- a key complaint
among the former president's allies who say they have been persecuted by
the new government -- Security Council members welcomed the provisional
release of some long-detained leaders of Aristide's Lavalas Family party
but urged the government to "expedite all pending cases and to ensure due
process for all citizens."