The ousted leader of Haiti, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, urged his followers on Monday to resist the ”occupation” of their homeland peacefully, and said that he still considered himself president.
Raising the stakes at what could be the beginning of a campaign to regain office, Aristide denounced the rebels as drug dealers and terrorists and repeated the claim that he had been kidnapped by the Americans.
”This unfortunately has paved the way for occupation and we launch an appeal for peaceful resistance,” he said. ”I’m choosing my words carefully: for a peaceful resistance.”
Speaking at his first press conference since being exiled to the Central African Republic last week, the former Roman Catholic priest appeared calm and composed.
”I am the elected president and I remain the elected president. I am pleading for the restoration of democracy,” Aristide said.
His call was expected to galvanise supporters, but the emphasis on peaceful means may be lost in the Caribbean country’s tumult. Aristide loyalists were blamed for shots fired two days ago at a crowd celebrating his departure, killing six people and wounding 18.
The US has denied abducting Aristide, Haiti’s first democratically elected president, saying that he resigned and boarded a US plane to avert further bloodshed between his supporters and the rebels who appeared to be moving on the capital, Port-au-Prince.
France joined the Americans in favouring his departure.
On Monday, dressed in a blue suit, Aristide told reporters that he had been held captive in Port-au-Prince on February 28-29 and then driven to the airport, which was under American control.
”The fact is, there was a political abduction,” he said.
His lawyer said last night that Aristide intended to sue over his kidnapping. Gilbert Collard told Reuters: ”We will file suits against the French ambassador [in Port-au-Prince] and against the military authorities that carried out the abduction of the president.
”The suits will target the Bush administration and the French government,” he said.
Elected as a champion of the poor in one of the world’s poorest countries, Aristide suffered a loss of popularity in the face of accusations of corruption and thuggery. Some of the rebels who took up arms against him were implicated in human rights abuses under former Haitian regimes, but that did not stop jubilant crowds welcoming them.
They now control much of the country, although in theory power rests with a former head of the supreme court, Justice Boniface Alexandre, who has been appointed the interim president.
Aristide, meanwhile, has been lodged in a crumbling palace in Bangui, the capital of the Central African Republic, with his wife and aides.
On Monday he rebutted reports that he was effectively a prisoner there. He has access to a telephone and satellite television.
The authorities in Bangui, themselves impoverished and coup-prone, have said that he is welcome to stay as long as he wants, but have asked for foreign aid to offset the cost.
In vain, they have asked him to stop criticising the US.
Aristide was vague about his next move. ”Where I’m going will depend on the circumstances. For the moment, I am here, and I am very well.”
The US secretary of state, Colin Powell, wanted South Africa to take him. But he was rebuffed by President Thabo Mbeki, who as an ally of Mr Aristide reportedly did not want to legitimise the manner of the Haitian president’s departure.
Mbeki has been heavily criticised at home for backing controversial figures, such as Aristide and President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe,
The 53-member African Union said on Monday that Aristide’s removal from power was unconstitutional and urged African countries to grant him asylum. It also urged the UN to investigate the circumstances of his exile. – Guardian Unlimited Â