On the heels of an exiled despot’s arrival home, former Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide said he is ready return to help his troubled homeland.
“As far as I am concerned, I am ready,” Aristide said in a statement provided Thursday by the foreign ministry of South Africa, where Aristide has been living since fleeing Haiti during a violent 2004 uprising.
“Once again I express my readiness to leave today, tomorrow, at any time,” Aristide said. “Since my forced arrival in the Mother Continent six and a half years ago, the people of Haiti have never stopped calling for my return to Haiti.”
Aristide’s lawyer in the United States said that the former president did not have a passport, and the Haitian government will not issue him one.
“If he were free to leave and had a passport, he’d be on a plane tomorrow,” said Ira Kurzban.
Kurzban told CNN that no talks have taken place that would allow Aristide to return to the nation that elected him president.
“For Aristide to leave, he would need the cooperation of the U.S. government and the South African government,” he added.
The U.S. State Department has made clear it is not enthusiastic about the idea of Aristide going home.
“We do not doubt President Aristide’s desire to help the people of Haiti. But today Haiti needs to focus on its future, not its past,” spokesman P.J. Crowley said on Twitter Wednesday. “This is an important period for Haiti. What it needs is calm, not divisive actions that distract from the task of forming a new government.”
South Africa’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs declined to comment.
An Aristide representative in South Africa refused to say whether the former president had a passport or if he believed the Americans and South Africans were blocking him from going back.
Aristide’s lawyer said that if former dictator Jean-Claude “Baby Doc” Duvalier could return, Aristide should not be barred.
“If they can manage to allow Duvalier to go back, then certainly a democratically elected president should be allowed to return,” said Kurzban.
The Miami attorney also told CNN that Aristide wants to return home as a private citizen.
“He does not want to be involved in politics,” said Kurzban.
Aristide said in his statement that he wants to go back home to serve Haitians “as a simple citizen in the field of education.”
“The return is indispensable, too, for medical reasons,” he added, saying that he has had six eye surgeries in the six years he has lived in South Africa.
“The surgeons are excellent and very well skilled, but the unbearable pain experienced in the winter must be avoided in order to reduce any risk of further complications and blindness,” he said.
The former Roman Catholic priest remains a controversial figure in the Caribbean nation.
Aristide was regarded as a voice for the poorest of poor and the father of democracy, becoming Haiti’s first democratically elected leader. But he faced accusations of widespread corruption and despotism in his last years before a bloody revolt by street gangs and soldiers forced him to flee.
Aristide has repeatedly said over the years that he wants to return home. His latest statement, however, comes at a pivotal moment as Haiti is embroiled in political turmoil.
A late-November presidential election resulted in allegations of widespread fraud and final results have yet to be determined, even though current President Rene Preval’s term is set to end in early February.
The return of Duvalier, whose ouster in 1986 gave way to the rise of Aristide, complicated Haitian politics even further. It’s not clear whether Duvalier still harbors ambitions of holding Haiti’s highest office again.
Duvalier’s lawyer, Reynold Georges, said the strongman does not intend to quit Haiti, even though he faces charges of financial wrongdoing and possibly human rights abuses.
Georges told CNN that Duvalier would fight any charges against him and could very well get back into politics.
“You can bet your life on it,” Georges said, referring to Duvalier’s intention to remain in Haiti, adding that Duvalier is looking into renovating one of his old homes.
Duvalier made a brief appearance Wednesday, stepping out onto a balcony of the Karibe Hotel in Port-au-Prince and waving to dozens of supporters. “I will see you later,” he said.
Source: CNN
