26218: (news) Chamberlain: Aristide to stay in S.Africa despite Haiti poll (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

    CAPE TOWN, Sept 7 (Reuters) - Ousted Haitian President Jean-Bertrand
Aristide will remain in his South African exile despite presidential
elections at home later this year, South Africa's foreign minister said on
Wednesday.
     Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma said the elections, set for Nov. 20, will not
solve Haiti's problems and that Aristide will not  return home until peace
and stability was restored to the Caribbean country.
     "He does not want to give an excuse for people who want to destabilise
(the polls), and use him as an excuse," she told reporters in Cape Town.
     The two rival factions of Aristide's Lavalas Family party, the main
opposition group since the Haitian president fled the country in 2004 amid
an armed revolt, agreed this week to take part in the polls but demanded
political prisoners be released.
     A Lavalas party victory in the polls could open the way for his
return.
     The Lavalas party wants its jailed leaders, including its presidential
candidate Gerard Jean-Juste, released ahead of the elections. Haiti's
interim government arrested Jean-Juste in July on suspicion he had played a
role in the kidnapping and killing of a journalist.
     He has denied the allegation and has said the allegations, like those
against fellow Lavalas leaders, are politically motivated.
     Dlamini-Zuma cast doubt on the planned poll.
     "Even if Haiti goes through with elections this time we don't think
the conditions exist to solve the problems of Haiti through an election,"
she said.
     "Those elections should take place in an atmosphere where every party
is free not just to participate but to actually actively campaign without
repression, without fear of detention."