Haiti

Thousands demand Aristide's return

Article published on the 2008-07-16 Latest update 2008-07-17 07:11 TU

Demonstrators face police tear gas
(Photo: Reuters)

Thousands of supporters of deposed Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide demonstrated in Port-au-Prince on Tuesday, his 55th birthday. They were demanding his return to the country from exile in South Africa, where he went after being toppled in 2004.

Most of the protestors came from the capital's poor areas, where Aristide's support has always been strongest.

They claim that current President René Preval has promised to allow Aristide to return and demand that he live up to that commitment. They were also protesting at soaring prices of basic necessities.

Police fired teargas when the demonstration approached the presidential palace, which was surrounded by a cordon erected by security forces, including UN military vehicles.

Aristide, a former priest committed to the liberation theology trend of Catholicism, first became president in 1990 after fighting against military ruler Jean-Claude "Papa Doc" Duvalier.

Driven into exile by a coup, he returned in 1994, backed by US troops, before stepping down from the presidency in 1996.

His second term as president, from 2001 to 2004, ended in a rebellion which drove him into exile. Aristide claims that the US forced him to flee the country. UN troops were subsequently sent in to the country to maintain peace.

Haiti is the poorest country in the western hemisphere.