27589: (news) Chamberlain: If safe, Aristide may return to Haiti - S.Africa (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

     CAPE TOWN, Feb 9 (Reuters) - South Africa will take a look at
conditions in Haiti after the elections to see whether it is safe for
ousted president Jean-Bertrand Aristide to return, the government said on
Thursday.
     Votes are still being counted in the Caribbean nation after Tuesday's
election, the first poll since Aristide fled a coup to live in exile in
South Africa in 2004. Election results are expected in the coming days.
     Aristide's long-time ally Rene Preval is the favourite to win the
vote, raising the possibility that Aristide may seek to return home. He
fled amid accusations of corruption and despotism, but remains popular in
Haiti's slums.
     "If he asked to return home we would have to talk to the government to
ensure he will be able to live a normal life," South African Foreign
Minister Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma said at a media briefing in Cape Town.
"When he arrived in South Africa we said he would be a guest for as long as
is necessary, but as far as we are concerned he is not here for life,"
Dlamini Zuma told reporters.
     "It is important to see what happens after these elections, to see how
the new government is and the stability and so on and to see whether it was
conducive to both himself and the government for him to go back."
     Aristide himself has not commented about returning.
     The former president was accorded a red carpet welcome in South Africa
and has lived as a guest of the government, which still sees him as Haiti's
rightful leader.
     The election was relatively peaceful with no widespread violence as
was feared in a country that has seen repeated coups and to which United
States troops have been sent three times in the past century.