| Haiti interim pm hits out at jamaica for taking aristide { March 17 2004 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active) http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,8989142%255E2703,00.htmlhttp://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,8989142%255E2703,00.html
Successor hits out as Jamaica takes in Aristide From AP, AFP March 17, 2004 PORT-AU-PRINCE: Haiti's interim Prime Minister angrily withdrew his ambassador to Jamaica yesterday and suspended relations with the entire Caribbean in protest over ousted president Jean-Bertrand Aristide's arrival in the neighbouring country.
The US-backed Gerard Latortue also said he suspected that Mr Aristide, who fled Haiti on February 29, was paying Haitians "to destabilise the country". Mr Aristide's arrival in Jamaica raised tensions in Haiti, where his followers planned more protests to demand the return of the troubled country's first democratically elected leader.
US forces in Haiti experienced yesterday their first casualty since the former president left when a US Marine was shot in the arm while patrolling a pro-Aristide stronghold in Port-au-Prince.
US troops have been attacked several times and have shot and killed at least six Haitians in the past week.
Mr Aristide arrived with his wife, Mildred, at Norman Manley International Airport in Kingston, 200km from Haiti, where they boarded a helicopter. Jamaican officials said the Aristides would stay at a rural retreat of Jamaican Prime Minister PJ Patterson.
Mr Latortue said he had told Mr Patterson that inviting back Mr Aristide was "a very unfriendly gesture". He also attacked the 15-nation Caribbean Community, saying: "We are going to put to sleep all participation in the activity of Caricom."
Jamaican officials have said Mr Aristide will visit for only eight to 10 weeks to be reunited with his two young daughters, and make plans for permanent exile elsewhere.
But Mr Aristide indicated he had not abandoned his desire to return to govern Haiti. "For the time being I'm listening to my people," he said before leaving the Central African Republic, where he was flown in a US-supplied plane two weeks ago.
Former Haitian security chief Oriel Jean faced a Canadian immigration hearing yesterday over his alleged links to drug-trafficking and war crimes. Mr Jean, a close aide to Mr Aristide, has been detained in Toronto since his arrival from the Dominican Republic last Wednesday.
AP, AFP
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