30075: (news) Chamberlain: Haiti-Aristide (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

   By STEVENSON JACOBS

   PORT-AU-PRINCE, Feb 23 (AP) -- Jean-Bertrand Aristide, Haiti's ousted
former president, said he will return to the Caribbean nation "once the
conditions are right" but has no plans to go back into government.
   In a wide-ranging interview published Thursday in the London Review of
Books, Aristide said he and his family are staying in South Africa "as
guests, not as exiles." However, he said the timing of his return will be
up to President Rene Preval, his former ally.
   "Once the conditions are right, we'll go back. As soon as Rene Preval
judges that the time is right then I'll go back," Aristide said in the
interview, conducted in July 2006 by Peter Hallward, a philosophy professor
at Britain's Middlesex University.
   Aristide, ousted in a bloody uprising three years ago this month, said
his return depends on "judging the security and stability" of the
impoverished country.
   Preval has said Haiti's constitution allows Aristide's return but has
refused to say if he will welcome home his one-time mentor. The two
reportedly have not spoken in years. Preval's office gave no immediate
comment on Aristide's remarks.
   Aristide said he would like return to teaching in Haiti, not government.
   "I will serve the people again, from outside the structure of the
state," he said. "I would like to go back to teaching. As for politics, I
never had any interest in becoming a political leader 'for life.'"
   He also ruled out a return as leader of his deeply divided Fanmi Lavalas
political party, which still enjoys wide support among Haiti's poor.
   "I will not dominate or lead the organization, that is not my role, but
I will contribute what I can," Aristide said.
   Aristide was flown out of Haiti on a U.S.-supplied jet as rebels neared
the capital, Port-au-Prince. The U.S. government has said Aristide left
voluntarily, but the former president alleges he was kidnapped in a coup.
   In the interview, Aristide said the rebels never posed a serious threat
to the capital even though they managed to seize several northern cities.
   "There was no great insurrection. There was a small group of soldiers,
heavily armed, who were able to overwhelm some police stations (in the
north), kill some policemen and create a certain amount of havoc," Aristide
said.
   "But the city was a different story. The people were ready, and I wasn't
worried," he added.
   Aristide said the U.S. decided to remove him on Feb. 29, 2004, after a
shipment of South African arms was sent to aid the Haitian police force,
tipping the balance in favor of Aristide's security forces.
   "They (the Americans) knew that in a few more hours, they would lose
their opportunity to 'resolve' the situation," he said. "They grabbed their
chance while they had it, and bundled us onto a plane in the middle of the
night."
   The U.S. government has denied Aristide's account, saying that he asked
for help.