Aristide praises UN for Haiti
2005-03-10 13:00
Johannesburg - The United Nations' commitment to Haiti had enabled its people to stage the first peaceful protest in a year, said ousted president Jean-Bertrand Aristide on Wednesday.
Aristide said: "It was a beautiful piece of history yesterday when people were able to demonstrate peacefully and there were no thugs,"
He was talking to reporters after giving a speech at University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg.
Aristide attributed this to the UN's guarantee of the security of demonstrators.
He said: "After one year at least the UN is doing something different to protect the rights of the people."
Around 100 000 people reportedly took to the streets on Tuesday in support of Aristide, who was ousted in a coup d'etat in February last year.
'Haitians want Aristide back'
He referred to this as a "kidnapping" and said it was the 34th coup d'etat in Haiti's history.
"They were demonstrating because they wanted their elected president back home."
He said UN head Kofi Annan criticised last week's "massacre" where police, flanked by UN troops, fired at demonstrators marking the anniversary of Aristide's flight to South Africa.
At least two people were killed.
Aristide said more than 10 000 Haitians had been killed in the last year in political violence.
He said: "What South Africa had prior to 1994 is what Haiti has today."
Dealing with non-racial society
He said his time in South Africa had shown him this is where the future of Africa is - not just South Africa.
"South Africa is an example for every country willing to deal with a non-racial society."
But, Aristide said he would return to Haiti - one day.
He said: "I will return. I don't know when, but I will return.
"My dream is to continue to serve the people. My constitution prevents me from serving as president again.
That leaves me to do what I always wanted to do - to serve as a priest."
Aristide had served two terms as president: from 1990 to 1991, which was interrupted by time in exile and resumed from 1994 to 1996, and from 2000 until forced into exile again in 2004.
Prior to 1990, he was a Catholic priest and an academic.
'Drug dealers and convicts'
Although he hoped to go home, Aristide denied reports that he was stirring up trouble in Haiti from his base in Pretoria.
"That is false... They are looking for a scapegoat to find a way to justify what they cannot justify,"
He referred to his accusers as "drug dealers and convicts".
"How can I have such power from South Africa? All I can do is to pray that they will not kill the people while they are demonstrating."
He said the drug dealers and convicts were financed through the US state department to the tune of $51bn.
"One percent of the population owns 51% of the wealth and they use it to move from coup d'etat to coup d'etat."
He said he was also not actively involved in lobbying support for his cause.
"I try to observe, to share the experiences of my people, to pay attention to what's going on there."
- SAPA