Posted on 03/08/2004 6:32:13 AM PST by dead
Bangui
The Central African Republic authorities will meet in the coming days with ousted Haitian leader Jean-Bertrand Aristide to "clear up" whether he wants to remain in Bangui or head into exile elsewhere, government spokesman Parfait M'bay said Wednesday. "We hope that former president Jean-Bertrand Aristide will be able to meet the country's authorities so that a certain number of points can be cleared up, because we still don't know if he wants to stay in Bangui for a while or continue on his way to South Africa," M'bay said in a radio interview.
Aristide arrived Monday after fleeing his Caribbean island state following weeks of unrest that claimed scores of lives. But the next day, Aristide's behaviour was proving a headache for his Central African Republic hosts. "He's already started to embarrass us," M'bay said. "He's scarcely been here 24 hours, and he's causing problems for Central African diplomacy." M'bay slammed Aristide for making "irresponsible statements" to US television network CNN on Tuesday, including that he was ousted in a coup orchestrated by Washington.
Sources close to the former priest have said he felt a prisoner in Bangui -- another irritant to the government, which gave Aristide and his wife Mildred a red carpet welcome, housed them in a luxurious villa and let them have a phone, M'bay said. A cabinet meeting called for Tuesday to discuss Aristide's future was postponed for a few days because President Francois Bozize and Prime Minister Celestin Gaombalet were not in the capital. Bozize has said in a statement that the impoverished country -- struggling financially and starved of international recognition after a coup nearly a year ago toppled elected president Ange-Felix Patasse -- had "agreed to give refuge to the former president of the world's first black republic, Haiti," at the request of Gabonese President Omar Bongo.
When Aristide arrived Monday, officials insisted he was only stopping off en route to exile elsewhere, probably in South Africa, where the ousted leader enjoys good relations with President Thabo Mbeki. But on Tuesday, a spokesman for Mbeki said South Africa would not take a snap decision on granting asylum to Aristide, preferring instead to discuss the issue with other countries and the United Nations. Issues to be thrashed out would include "funding, the issue of security and protection, the issue of what kind of diplomatic immunity. ... And it is not an easy thing that can be done overnight. ... It takes a bit of time," Mbeki's spokesman Bheki Khumalo said on public radio.
The Central African Republic, which has been riddled by years of high-level corruption that has emptied state coffers, can ill afford -- on financial or diplomatic grounds -- to provide safe haven for Aristide, accused by his opponents of being involved in political assassinations, drug running and illegal enrichment.
But the deposed leader's presence here was proving a boon for the landlocked nation by making it the focus of world media attention, according to M'bay, while a local daily said it allowed the country to "burnish its image as a country of refuge and help."
Jesse Helms presented them with the information in 1991 and they all pretended it didn't exist.
Is that like an ice cream you buy over the internet?
Land conscription, in the manner of Zimbabwe is next for South Africa and the transformation will be complete.
. So much for the freedom gained by the removal of apartheid.
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