Haiti's Aristide refuses to step down

Thursday, February 5, 2004

WASHINGTON, USA (AFP): Haitian President Jean Bertrand Aristide on Wednesday again said he would finish his term, despite escalating demands for his resignation.

"I will leave here on February 7, 2006," Aristide told CNN. "People must respect that principle, one man, one vote."

Aristide's opponents say he stole the 2000 election that returned him to power. International observers also said the polls were flawed, leaving the Caribbean nation locked in political crisis.

Protests against Aristide have turned increasingly violent since September, with clashes among rival demonstrators and gunfights by gangs who back the president.

Aristide insisted that he did not support the armed gangs that routinely attack opposition marches.

"Not only we don't support them, we cannot support them. We are building a state of law. How could we let thugs, gangs moving ahead with weapons in their hands," he said.

"We have to help the police, because the police has to be more professionalized. And the police of course has to protect all those who want to demonstrate in a peaceful way."

Aristide, a former Catholic priest, was first elected president in 1990, but eight months after taking office he was overthrown in a bloody military coup.

The United States sent 20,000 troops to Haiti in 1994 to bring Aristide back to power. He stepped down after his first five-year term, and was re-elected in 2000.

Legislative elections were supposed to be held last year, but no electoral body was set up to oversee the polls, leaving the nation without a functioning legislature.

Aristide now rules by decree, but has promised elections within six months. The opposition has rejected his proposal as inadequate. 

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