Mbeki to welcome Aristide

2004-05-30 15:36

Johannesburg - President Thabo Mbeki will on Monday "officially receive and welcome" deposed Haitian president Jean-Bertrand Aristide who arrives in South Africa to take up temporary asylum, a government statement said.

Aristide is due to arrive at Johannesburg International Airport at 14:00.

Aristide, 50, left power on February 29 and spent two weeks in the Central African Republic, where he said he had been pushed from power by the United States with French backing, making himself unpopular with his hosts.

Aristide arrived in Jamaica on March 15 and had been living there until his departure for South Africa.

The former priest who was first elected in 1990, then ousted in a coup in 1991 only to return to power with US military backing in 1994, had said from the outset that he wanted to come to South Africa.

But the South African government had let it be known that it did not want to agree to the controversial move ahead of the April 14 elections.

The ANC said the decision to take in Aristide would help resolve the crisis in Haiti, which it suggested was caused by outside interference.

"It is important to note that Aristide was the legitimately elected head of a sovereign country who was forcefully and unconstitutionally removed from power," an ANC statement said.

- AFP