Mbeki's visit to Haitian bicentennial comes under fire both literally and figuratively

Saturday, January 3, 2004

CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AFP): South African President Thabo Mbeki's decision to attend bicentennial celebrations in Haiti came under political fire here on Friday, with the opposition calling it a "fiasco costing millions of rand."

Mbeki was scheduled to return to South Africa on Saturday after attending celebrations on the small, troubled Caribbean island state, where a helicopter belonging to his advance security team came under fire on Thursday.

"The Haitian fiasco cost many millions of rand," said Democratic Alliance acting leader Douglas Gibson, adding that Mbeki's standing had been diminished by his presence at the celebrations in Haiti, where he was the only head of state among 24 foreign representatives.

"Because of his over-emotional response to Haiti's two-hundredth anniversary of getting rid of the French, President Mbeki, alone among African or world leaders, insisted on participating in the celebration," Gibson said in a statement issued in Cape Town.

"Why does President Mbeki diminish his own personal standing and prestige by seeking out and associating himself with people like (Haitian President Jean Bertrand) Aristide?" Gibson asked.

The Haitian opposition has accused Aristide and his entourage of involvement in political assassinations, illegal enrichment and links to drug trafficking. Haiti is said to be a key trading point for narcotics.

Aristide has dismissed the accusations as slander.

"Mbeki's conduct sent out a message that he would associate with anyone who was in power instead of considering the people of the country who might have a totally negative view of South Africa and Mbeki because of the seal of approval which his presence carried."

Gibson said in addition to 10 million rand (1.5 million dollars/ 1.1 million euros) donated by the Pretoria government to Aristide's government to help finance the celebrations, the cost of sailing the navy support ship Drakensberg with 250 sailors, 51 police officers, a helicopter and 18 intelligence agents to Haiti added to the feeling that Mbeki started the year "with a gross error of judgment".

"Either the South African secret service failed to inform and advise the president properly about the problematic nature of a Haiti visit or else he chose to ignore that advice," Gibson added.

A South African helicopter belonging to President Thabo Mbeki's advance protection team came under fire, prompting Mbeki to cancel a scheduled visit to the northwestern city of Gonaives, police said Friday.

"A helicopter belonging to the South African security forces came under fire (Thursday) in Haiti while doing an advance sweep before a scheduled visit to a soup ceremony in Gonaives, celebrating the country's independence," said spokesman Selby Bokaba.

"The helicopter turned back and our forces of the advance team on the ground were withdrawn," Senior Superintendent Bokaba told AFP.

He said Mbeki who was supposed to attend the soup ceremony -- a tradition which was celebrated for the first time by Haitians after independence in 1804 -- was still in the capital of Port-au-Prince.

"At no stage did the South Africans return fire," Bokaba stressed, but added that the situation was "volatile."

Mbeki's spokesman Bheki Khumalo told AFP that the president's cavalcade was "nowhere near the area when the shooting happened."

"Neither did any of our forces return fire," he said.

"The president will return from his visit to Haiti tomorrow (Saturday) as scheduled," Khumalo said.

Haitian President Jean Bertrand Aristide on Thursday celebrated the bicentennial of his country's independence amid political chaos and abject poverty.

The former Roman Catholic priest, with Mbeki at his side, took the rostrum in front of the National Palace to declare before an ocean of flag-waving supporters, "a bicentennial of freedom, for a millennium of peace."

The anniversary commemorated history's only successful revolt by slaves, who sent Napoleon's troops packing 200 years ago.

But what should have been a festive event for Aristide was marred by demonstrations demanding his resignation under a cloud of elusive democracy, economic chaos, primitive health care and sanitary conditions.

Thousands of Aristide's supporters and opponents clashed in the capital in a stone-throwing melee that left at least eight injured, two of them of gunshot wounds. 

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