video of Jean Bertrand Aristide's returning speech in Haiti

Aristide just landed in Haiti

Aristide Just Landed In Haiti!

Friday March 18, 2011 09:21 AM ET

Former Haitian president Jean Bertrand aristide just landed in Haiti... ARISTIDE IS BACK IN HAITI... Follow this article for all the updates at the airport...

Here are the updates as it happens...

Keep Refreshing this page for more updates!

9:21am - President Aristide Came out of the airplane... A blue/white jet...

9:25am - Lots of commotion at the airport as President Aristide makes his way to the Diplomatic room

9:26 am - Aristide enters the 'Salon Diplomatic' at the airport

9:28am - The media is mobilized and awaits first words from President Aristide...

Aristide is on his way back to Haiti

        By DONNA BRYSON and MICHELLE FAUL, Associated Press       
    –
    6 mins ago
JOHANNESBURG – Declaring the "great day has arrived," Jean-Bertrand Aristide said farewell to South Africa Thursday, then boarded a plane for Haiti, where he can expect both adoring crowds and probing questions about his intentions.
U.S. President Barack Obama had tried to keep the hugely popular but controversial figure away from his country until it holds a presidential election this weekend, a vote many fear will be destabilized by the presence of the former Haitian president.
Aristide's lawyer Ira Kurzban has said Aristide will be back in Haiti by noon on Friday.
  Aristide addressed about 50 reporters in several languages from South Africa and elsewhere on the continent at a small airport in northern Johannesburg that often handles charter flights. South African foreign minister Maite Nkoana-Mashabane accompanied him, his wife Mildred and two daughters to the airport to see them off. Michaela, 12, and Christine, 14, have spent half their lives and their most formative years in exile.
"The great day has arrived! The day to say goodbye before returning home," he said in Zulu, a language he studied in South Africa. "We are delighted to return home after seven years. In Haiti also they are very happy .... Their dream will be fulfilled. Together, we will continue to share this endless love."
Thousands are expected to welcome him home. As word spread in Haiti of his imminent return, several dozen people adorned the courtyard of his foundation with small Haitian flags and photos of him. One woman showed up with a bouquet of flowers that she wanted to present to him, while another knelt on the concrete in prayer. A third elderly woman simply wept.
Aristide took no questions before heading to his chartered plane.
"We can't hold him hostage if he wants to go," South African Cabinet Minister Collins Chabane was quoted as saying earlier Thursday, noting Haiti's government had delivered Aristide's diplomatic passport last month.
Aristide, a former slum priest, was twice elected president of Haiti and remains wildly popular among the Caribbean nation's majority poor.
Aristide never completed either of his terms. He was ousted the first time in a coup and restored to power in a U.S. military intervention in 1994. After completing his term he was re-elected years later, only to flee a rebellion in 2004 aboard a U.S. plane. Aristide claimed he was kidnapped.
Aristide has been reclusive in exile, doing university research and polishing his academic credentials with a doctorate awarded by the University of South Africa for a comparative study on Zulu and Haitian Creole. He relaxed by playing table tennis.
Obama was concerned enough about Aristide's possibly destabilizing influence to call South African President Jacob Zuma on Tuesday and discuss the matter, U.S. National Security Council spokesman Tommy Vietor told The Associated Press. A Zuma spokesman had no comment, saying he was unaware of the call.
"The United States, along with others in the international community, has deep concerns that President Aristide's return to Haiti in the closing days of the election could be destabilizing," Vietor said. "President Obama reiterated ... his belief that the Haitian people deserve the chance to choose their government through peaceful, free, and fair elections March 20."
At the airport Thursday, South Africa's foreign minister said Zuma had wished Aristide "bon voyage and safe landing in his country of birth."
Aides say Aristide, Haiti's first democratically elected president, fears the winner of Sunday's vote might block his return. In the past, both candidates had opposed Aristide. Now, both Michel Martelly and Mirlande Manigat stress his right to return as a Haitian citizen under the constitution. Both candidates would want to attract votes from followers of the Lavalas Family party of which Aristide still is president.
Haiti's electoral council barred Lavalas from the presidential election for technical reasons that supporters said were bogus. Its members are boycotting Sunday's runoff. The initial Nov. 28 vote was so troubled by fraud, disorganization, instances of violence and voter intimidation that 12 of the 19 candidates including the front-runners initially called for it to be tossed out.
Actor Danny Glover, the chair of TransAfrica social justice forum, came to South Africa to accompany Aristide home. Glover asked why former dictator Jean-Claude Duvalier could return to Haiti unhindered and not Aristide.
"People of good conscience cannot be idle while a former dictator is able to return unhindered while a democratic leader who peacefully handed over power to another elected president is restricted from returning to his country by external forces," Glover wrote on the TransAfrica Forum website.

Bill Quigley, legal Director of the Center for Constitutional Rights at Loyola New Orleans Law School said that "the United States trying to control when any Haitian citizen — especially a former President — can enter Haiti is outrageous." Quigley is among more than more than 100 lawyers from the United States, Europe and Canada who wrote a letter of criticism to the U.S. State Department.

South African officials had been showing increasingly impatience with the U.S.

Chabane told a news conference Thursday that South Africa cannot be held responsible for whether Aristide stays or goes, according to the South African Press Association.

"What I should stress is that we are not sending former President Aristide to Haiti. He was given the passport by the government of Haiti and we can't hold him hostage if he wants to go," Chabane was quoted as saying.

Aristide emerged as a leading voice for Haiti's poor in a popular revolt that forced an end to the Duvalier family's 29-year dictatorship. He has said he will not be involved in politics in Haiti and wants to lead his foundation's efforts to improve education in the impoverished Caribbean nation devastated by last year's catastrophic earthquake.

In the Haitian capital's Bel-Air neighborhood Thursday, there was a celebratory air as word spread Aristide was coming.

"We are going to party," said 36-year-old mechanic Assey Woy, passing the afternoon on street corner with friends. "It will be like New Year's Day."

Not far away, in front of the crumbled National Palace, a man who is supporting Martelly in Sunday's election told Associated Press Television that he had mixed feelings about the arrival.

"Yes, I support Aristide. I love Aristide," said the man who gave only his first name, Carlos. "But I don't want him to come back right now because it can be trouble for the election."

___

Associated Press writers Ben Fox in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, and Jenny Gross and Ed Brown in Johannesburg contributed to this report.

Danny Glover arrives in South Africa to escort Aristide home to Haiti

 —JOHANNESBURG Actor Danny Glover arrived in South Africa on Thursday to escort former Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide home, the politician's lawyer said.

Miami lawyer Ira Kurzban flew to Johannesburg Wednesday to accompany Aristide back to Haiti amid unexplained delays attributed to U.S. opposition.

The star of the "Lethal Weapon" action movies arrived Thursday morning, Kurzban said.

The United States has called for Aristide to put off his departure until Sunday's disputed presidential run-off in his homeland, saying his return would distract voters.

Aristide, who emerged as a leading voice for Haiti's poor in a popular revolt that forced an end to the Duvalier family's 29-year dictatorship, remains Haiti's most popular politician though he has been in exile seven years.

He has said he will not be involved in politics in Haiti and wants to lead his foundation's efforts to improve education in the impoverished Caribbean nation devastated by last year's catastrophic earthquake. Aides say he fears the winner of the presidential elections might reverse the long-awaited decision to allow his return. Both are right-wing candidates long opposed to Aristide.

Glover, who is board chair for the human rights and social advocacy organization TransAfrica Forum, is among several U.S. celebrities who have been pushing for Aristide's speedy return, including politicians Jesse Jackson, U.S. envoy to Haiti Paul Farmer and entertainer Harry Belafonte.

"I am going to South Africa to show our solidarity with the people of Haiti by standing at the side of the leader they elected twice with overwhelming support," Glover wrote on the TransAfrica Forum website.

"People of good conscience cannot be idle while a former dictator (Duvalier) is able to return unhindered while a democratic leader who peacefully handed over power to another elected president is restricted from returning to his country by external forces," Glover said.

Kurzban blamed Aristide's delayed trip on arranging an aircraft. Air charter companies in South Africa said a private jet would cost more than half a million dollars.

South African officials said they are consulting with "interested parties" on the logistics of moving Aristide, his wife and two daughters.

Glover and nine others recently wrote to South African President Jacob Zuma urging him to "assist the Aristides in making their transition as soon as possible" since "all the last remaining obstacles to the Aristides' return have been removed."

By Ed Brown (CP)

Copyright © 2011 The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

S.Africa 'cannot stop Aristide's return to Haiti'

PRETORIA (AFP) – South Africa cannot prevent Haiti's exiled ex-president Jean-Bertrand Aristide from returning home before this weekend's presidential run-off on the island, an official said Tuesday.

"It is not our responsibility to say if Jean-Bertrand Aristide should or should not leave South Africa before the election," deputy foreign minister Marius Fransman said.

The United States on Monday urged South Africa to encourage Aristide to stay put, fearing that his return would cause political turmoil as the country prepares for Sunday's vote.

"The US needs to engage the Haitian government. If his (Aristide's) passport has been issued, we cannot decide when he should leave South Africa," Fransman told reporters.

Haiti cleared the way for Aristide's return by issuing him with a new passport in February.

"It is essential that the Haitian government should be leading the process and we will facilitate whatever decision they take," he added.

An Aristide aide in Haiti said last week the return of the ousted leader, who has been living in South Africa since 2004, was "imminent".

Aristide and his wife Mildred work at the University of South Africa in Pretoria, where he received a PhD in African languages in 2007.

Aristide served three presidential terms and was ousted from office twice, eventually fleeing a 2004 popular uprising aboard a US plane.

He remains a popular figure in certain quarters in Haiti, especially in the capital's teeming slums, and in the tent cities that have sprung up since the January 2010 earthquake where many decry the slow pace of progress.

Haiti: Candidates dismiss fears over Aristide

Wednesday, 16 March 2011
Share
Haiti's two presidential candidates have dismissed concerns that the apparently imminent return of the exiled former president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, would disrupt the election, despite a warning from the US State Department that he could be a destabilising presence.
Michel Martelly, a pop singer known as "Sweet Micky", told reporters that he did not think Mr Aristide would influence the vote, although he would prefer that the former president wait "two or three days" and postpone his arrival until after the election.
"He is welcome to come back like Jean-Claude Duvalier did," said Mr Martelly, referring to the former dictator who made a surprise reappearance in Haiti in January. "I hope his return doesn't create instability for the elections."
Mirlande Manigat, a university administrator and former first lady, expressed no misgivings about the return of Mr Aristide, who has repeatedly said during his exile in South Africa that he wants to return home as a private citizen and work as an educator. Ms Manigat seemed even to encourage him.
"President Aristide is welcome to come back and help me with education," she said.
Both candidates have been Aristide opponents in the past. Now, both stress his right to return as a Haitian citizen under the constitution.

The United States campaign to keep Mr Aristide in South Africa.

If diplomacy is a form of lying, then the United States’ efforts to delay indefinitely the return to Haiti of former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, is a triumph of the most foul diplomacy. Aristide has a passport, but no permission to land in Haiti and, it appears, no permission to take off from South Africa, where he has lived in exile since his overthrow in a U.S.-backed coup in 2004. The outgoing government of Aristide’s onetime ally, President Rene Préval, provided the passport.
 A ‘distraction’
But the U.S. – which really runs the country in a troika with France and Canada – is unalterably opposed to an Aristide comeback. After last year’s devastating earthquake, the Americans said Aristide would be a distraction from the job of national reconstruction. Very little in the way of reconstruction has gotten done since then, but the Americans now claim that Aristide would distract from the runoff elections scheduled for March 20.
Three out of four Haitians were already distracted from taking part in the first round of elections in November, without Aristide’s presence. That was undoubtedly because Aristide’s party, Fanmi Lavalas, by far the most popular political grouping in the country, was prohibited from participating – also at the insistence of the Americans and the tiny Haitian elite with which they are allied.
Brazil silent
Brazil acts as rent-a-cop for the United Nations mission in Haiti, MINUSTAH, but WikiLeaks documents show the United States has pressured Brazil to use its influence with South Africa to keep Aristide’s feet planted firmly on African soil.
Brazil dearly wants to get a seat on the United Nations Security Council, and feels it cannot afford to make the Yankees angry.
South Africa claims it’s under no pressure from anybody, but then claims it has an obligation to consult "all the role-players to work out the ideal conditions for him to go back." Clearly, those "role-players" are the Americans and their French and Canadian co-conspirators.
Aristide’s lawyer says he will not attempt to leave South Africa without permission. Of course, if South Africa gave its blessing to an Aristide flight to Haiti, the U.S. would be forced to abandon the charade and give Aristide a yes or a no, in its own voice – which would expose Washington as the occupying power in Haiti. Gone would be all pretensions that the Americans favor Haitian democracy.
In hopes of putting the U.S. on the spot, a group of social activists, including Rev. Jesse Jackson, Danny Glover, Randall Robinson, Dick Gregory, and 11 others sent a letter to South African President Jacob Zuma.
No obstacles
The letter expressed hope that President Zuma "can assist the Aristides in making their transition as soon as possible." It said, "All the last remaining obstacles to the Aristides’ return have been removed," and expectations have been raised among Haitians that Aristide will soon arrive. But even Aristide’s lawyer, Ira Kurzban – who was wildly optimistic only a few weeks ago – seems resigned that Aristide won’t be going home any time soon.
So all the Haitian people have to look forward to is this month’s elections that they didn’t want anyway, for candidates that were essentially forced on them by the United States – an exercise that nobody but Americans believes has anything to do with democracy.
Glen Ford is executive editor of BlackAgendaReport.com. E-mail him at Glen.Ford@BlackAgendaReport.com .