South Africa: Haiti President Aristide's Central African Republic Arrival Still a Puzzle

11 March 2004
allAfrica.com
By Charles Cobb Jr.

Washington, DC — As Peter DeShazo, Deputy U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs puts it, the government of the Central African Republic simply called up the aircraft Haiti President Jean-Bertrand Aristide had boarded and invited him to take refuge in his nation.

"After he had departed Port-au-Prince the Government of the Central African Republic had offered to receive him, and the decision was made," DeShazo told a briefing Wednesday at the Foreign Press Center here.

Despite being peppered with questions by reporters seeking details on the deposed president's flight, DeShazo would go no further when asked about reports that both Panama and Costa Rica had offered temporary asylum to the deposed president: "I return to my answer. President Aristide was flown to the Central African Republic, where he was offered to come in, and that's where he ended up. I'm not going to go into any other details on that."

DeShazo confirmed that the U.S. government was involved in negotiating where Aristide would find asylum by saying that the possibility of Aristide going to South Africa "was raised with the government of South Africa." But again he offered no details. It is also not known whether the aircraft carrying Aristide filed a flight plan before taking off.

DeShazo did offer some insight into the administration's thinking about Haiti's turmoil, revealing that officials had written Aristide's government off. "The political status quo in Haiti on the eve of President Aristide's departure we view as a failed status quo that we were not willing to risk sending our troops in to defend, nor were any other countries."

Meanwhile, leading a 3-person delegation, South African Deputy Foreign Minister Aziz Pahad arrived in the Central African Republic Wednesday morning for discussions on Aristide. Although Central African Republic Foreign Minister Charles Wenezoui had said that the South African delegation had come to discuss Aristide's final settlement plans, Pahad said he didn't bring up the issue when he met with Aristide. As to whether Aristide might go to another African nation, "It's an African Union decision," said Pahad.

Pahad was in Washington for discussions with the State Department last week.

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