Trinidad backs Jamaica's decision on Aristide

Saturday, March 20, 2004

PORT-OF-SPAIN, Trinidad (AFP): Trinidad and Tobago fully endorses Jamaica's decision to host ousted Haitian president Jean Bertrand Aristide, Prime Minister Patrick Manning said Friday.

"This country was consulted before President Aristide was allowed to spend some time in Jamaica", Manning told a press conference.

"My government fully endorses that decision", he said.

At the same time, he said the decision by new Haitian Prime Minister Gerard Latortue to withdraw that country's ambassador from Jamaica was "a sad one".

But the matter, he explained, will be discussed at next weeks intercessional Caricom meeting in St Kitts.

Asked whether his government recognised the new Haitian regime, he responded: "Trinidad and Tobago has not taken a decision on the matter.

"Arising out of the Caricom meeting, we will be to articulate something more comprehensible," he added.

Asked further whether Trinidad and Tobago was willing to offer asylum to the deposed president, Manning offered that "the question does not arise."

Aristide arrived in Jamaica on Monday to spend up to ten weeks there, reunited with his two daughters.

"I want peace for Haiti," the exiled president said Thursday in a statement issued in Jamaica, where he expects to remain for about 10 weeks.

"I want to be part of the process of promoting peace," said Aristide, who fled from an armed uprising to the Central African Republic on February 29, and flew to Jamaica this week.

Aristide's visit to Jamaica infuriated Haitian authorities -- Latortue froze relations with the neighbor -- who fear it could rekindle the violence that followed his departure, when hardcore supporters went on a shooting and looting rampage.

But tension in the Haitian capital has eased in recent days as Aristide supporters handed in dozens of weapons to police, and said they had no immediate plans to stage demonstrations.

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