New Haitian leader recalls ambassador to Jamaica in protest

KINGSTON, Jamaica: Ousted president Jean-Bertrand Aristide returned to the Caribbean from African exile yesterday, but only to temporary asylum in Kingston. Haiti’s new leader recalled the country’s ambassador to Jamaica as Aristide supporters at home threatened protests demanding his return. US and Haitian officials had warned that Aristide’s return to the region — two weeks after he fled a popular rebellion — could disrupt a fragile peace as an interim government is being installed. Aristide arrived yesterday afternoon with his wife, Mildred, and a small delegation of supporters who had taken a chartered jet to collect him, at Norman Manley International Airport in Kingston, the Jamaica capital just 160 kilometres (130 miles) from Haiti.

He immediately boarded a helicopter, refusing to make any comment. A Jamaican protocol officer said he was being taken to a residence of Jamaican Prime Minister PJ Patterson. Haiti’s new US-backed leader, interim Prime Minister Gerard Latortue, said he was recalling the ambassador in Kingston, putting diplomatic relations with Jamaica on hold, and also reconsidering Haiti’s position with the 15-member Caribbean Community, which currently is chaired by Patterson. Jamaican officials have said Aristide will visit for only eight to 10 weeks to be reunited with his two daughters who had been sent for safety to New York City, and while he makes plans for a permanent home in exile in a third country.

Aristide arrived the day after a US Marine was shot and wounded in one of his Port-au-Prince strongholds, in an ambush on a foot patrol apparently meant as revenge for the shooting of two men killed by Marines when they came under fire on Friday. Latortue has warned that Aristide’s return to the region could threaten a fragile stability. US Defence Secretary Donald H Rumsfeld told CNN television that “the hope is that he will not come back into the hemisphere and complicate the situation.