ATTORNEY REQUESTS PASSPORT FOR FORMER HAITIAN PRESIDENT
(Miami Herald) - By Trenton Daniel
Jean-Bertrand Aristide has been in exile in South Africa
The Miami attorney representing Jean-Bertrand Aristide on Monday formally requested that the former Haitian president, who lacks a passport, be permitted to return to his homeland after seven years in exile in South Africa.
``I kindly request that his diplomatic passport be issued immediately and that plans for his return commence immediately,'' attorney Ira Kurzban wrote in a letter addressed to two Haitian government officials. ``To expedite this matter, President Aristide's passport may be delivered to the government of South Africa or to me.''
The request comes after Aristide authored a Jan. 19 letter in which he reiterated his interest in returning to Haiti after a ragtag rebellion in 2004 sent the priest-turned-president into exile in South Africa. In the recent missive, Aristide also noted that he was seeking medical attention for his eyes.
Aristide's interest in returning came only days after a fellow deposed leader -- Jean-Claude ``Baby Doc'' Duvalier -- unexpectedly showed up in Haiti. His arrival came as a surprise because he had been living a quiet exile in France ever since a popular uprising unseated him in 1986.
Since Duvalier appeared in Haiti two weeks ago, rumors have circulated over Miami radio stations and the Internet that Aristide is in Cuba or Venezuela or en route to those countries or Haiti.
In an e-mail Monday, Kurzban debunked the rumors, saying that Aristide is still in South Africa.
If Aristide were to return, it would come at a politically fragile time in Haiti, compounded by Duvalier's presence in the country. One year after a 7.0 magnitude earthquake, Haiti is wrestling with not only sluggish reconstruction, but also an electoral crisis and a deadly cholera outbreak.
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