South Africa says Aristide has not requested asylum

Saturday, March 27, 2004

PRETORIA, South Africa (AFP): Former Haitian president Jean Bertrand Aristide has not requested asylum in South Africa, its foreign ministry insisted on Friday.

"South Africa has not received any official request for asylum from President Aristide," foreign affairs spokesman Ronnie Mamoepa told AFP.

Mamoepa said if such a request was made, South Africa would consider it.

"We will consult Caricom, the African Union, the United Nations, whilst looking at regulations at home before a decision is made either way," he said. Caricom is the 15-member Caribbean Community.

Diplomatic sources in Jamaica, where Aristide is currently staying, had said on Thursday he would leave for South Africa after the latter's April 14 general election.

"Yes, Aristide is going to go to South Africa," a diplomat said. "The arrival of the former president was probably put off until after the elections so as not to be of any trouble to South African President Thabo Mbeki."

But South African newspapers Friday reported the country had not received an asylum request. A senior diplomatic source in South Africa told the Afrikaans-language Beeld newspaper: "If something like that was on the cards, I would have known about it".

Asked whether South Africa was expecting a request from Aristide after the elections, Mamoepa said: "That is speculation. I can't react to speculation."

Aristide arrived in Jamaica on March 15 from the Central African Republic, where he had been staying since he left Haiti on February 29, in the midst of an armed uprising.

He was expected to spend 10 weeks in Jamaica, but his presence so close to his still unstable country had raised fears that his supporters might be tempted to mount a counter-attack.

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