South Africa welcomes former Haitian leader Aristide

by Jan Hennop

Tuesday, June 1, 2004

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa (AFP): Former Haitian leader Jean-Bertrand Aristide was given a red-carpet welcome Monday as he arrived in South Africa to take up temporary asylum, three months after fleeing a popular revolt in his Caribbean country.

President Thabo Mbeki greeted Aristide with a hug after he stepped off the South African presidential jet at Johannesburg International Airport where cabinet ministers and African Union officials were also on hand to welcome him.

"We want to welcome president Aristide, his wife and children. Welcome indeed to the African continent. Welcome to South Africa," said Mbeki at a brief news conference at the airport.

Aristide, who was accompanied by his wife Mildred and two daughters, showed his appreciation, even managing to say "Thank you, Africa" in Zulu, before stating that he planned to return to his home country.

"Today... we are welcomed in Africa, our mother country, our temporary home until we are back in Haiti," said Aristide who arrived here from Jamaica, his previous stop in exile.

"Of course, the Haitian situation must be normalised, peace must be restored and democratic order," said Aristide.

South African Deputy Foreign Minister Aziz Pahad said the former priest's stay was open-ended.

"President Aristide, his family and aides will remain in the country until the situation in Haiti has stabilised to the extent that they could return," Pahad told a throng of reporters.

Flanked by South African, African Union and Caribbean officials, Aristide looked visibly drawn, staring straight ahead during most of the press conference, with his hands clutched in front of him.

About 100 people cheered and waved posters that read "Aristide Welcome Home" and "ANC Welcomes Aristide", referring to the governing African National Congress (ANC) party, as he got off Mbeki's presidential Boeing 737 business jet.

Aristide, 50, left Haiti for the Central African Republic on February 29 amid a popular revolt against his rule, and last month traveled on to Jamaica.

He has claimed that the United States and France forced him to resign but the two governments maintain that Aristide left voluntarily to avoid a bloodbath in Haiti, the poorest country in the western hemisphere.

South Africa is supporting calls for a United Nations-led probe into the circumstances leading to Aristide's departure and has suggested that he may have been a victim of the US policy of forced regime change.

The welcome given to Aristide underscored South Africa's view that Aristide is not a disgraced leader who was chased out of office by his people.

Aristide is due to give a joint news conference with Foreign Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma on Tuesday.

The former priest was first elected in 1990, ousted in a coup less than a year later only to return to power with US military backing in 1994.

South African officials say the decision to welcome Aristide was taken as a gesture of recognition of Haiti as the world's first black republic, created when slaves rose up against French rule in 1804.

Aristide will be housed in a government residence in Pretoria as a guest of the South African state.

The main opposition party has branded the decision to welcome Aristide a "mistake."

"Ordinary South Africans cannot fathom why they must pay to put up with the former Haitian leader along with his delegation. Mr Aristide should go home," Democratic Alliance chief whip Douglas Gibson said.

"The arrival of Aristide in South Africa is not a cause for celebration, but rather an illustration of how out of touch the government is with the priorities of the country," Gibson was quoted by SAPA news agency as saying.

Opposition parties have asked the government to disclose the cost to taxpayers of taking in Aristide as a guest of the state.

But Pahad called on "all South Africans to handle this matter with the requisite level of maturity, respect and dignity that is concomitant with the role South Africa plays and is expected to play in international relations."

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