PATTERSON. it all went back

A South African military aircraft, which arrived too late with arms and equipment destined for the Haitian police, spent four days on the tarmac at Kingston's Norman Manley Airport before returning home on Wednesday with all its cargo onboard, the Jamaican government confirmed last night.

"It all went back," Prime Minister P J Patterson told the Observer. "Every bit of it. Customs put a seal on it and it all went back."

In this January 1, 2004 file photo, Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide (right) embraces his special guest, South African President Thabo Mbeki, during the celebrations marking Haiti's 200th independence anniversary in Port-au-Prince. (Photo: AP)

The Boeing 707 aircraft arrived in Jamaica early Sunday, hours before President Jean-Bertrand Aristide's ostensible resignation and exile from Haiti. It left on Wednesday, a day later than planned, because of mechanical problems, officials said.

The South African press had reported last week that President Thabo Mbeki had agreed to send guns, bullets and bullet-proof vests to Haiti's ill-equipped police force to help Aristide, who was facing an armed insurrection, defend himself.

Delano Franklyn

The South African government did not comment on the issue, but yesterday the country's Opposition Democratic Alliance Party claimed that the plane had left with the arms although Aristide was out of the country.

Opposition spokesman, Anthony Hazell, said that when his party asked Defence Minister Mosiuoa Lekota for an explanation, he said that the plane had gone to Jamaica at the request of the Caribbean Community (Caricom) with policing equipment for Haiti.

Hazell had suggested that the arms and equipment were still in the Caribbean and had questioned to what use they would be put. "The situation (in Haiti) has changed drastically from when that request was originally made," he said.

But in a formal statement last night, Jamaica's deputy foreign minister, Delano Franklyn, outlined the sequence of events leading up to the arrival of the aircraft in Jamaica and repeated Patterson's insistence that everything that came on it went back.

"The aircraft left Jamaica on March 3 with all the cargo aboard," Franklyn said.

According to the foreign ministry's account of events, Aristide - who claimed he was all but kidnapped by US forces and forced out of Haiti - wrote to Patterson, Caricom's chairman, on February 23, asking for assistance with equipment for the police in the face of the worsening security situation in Haiti.
With large sections of the country in the hands of the rebels, Aristide asked that the matter be dealt with urgently.

On the same day, Patterson wrote to South Africa's president Thabo Mbeki - who had previously expressed a willingness to assist the Haitian police - with Aristide's request.

With Mbeki's positive response assured, Patterson replied to Aristide, telling the Haitian president about the approach to Mbeki but asking for assurance that "the material assistance will be received, controlled and be available for the exclusive use of the duly constituted security force in Haiti for the purpose of the maintenance of law and order".

That letter, though, was faxed to Aristide on February 28 - hours before his departure from Haiti and after he had insisted to Jamaica's foreign minister, K D Knight, that he had no intention of leaving his country.

According to diplomatic and political sources, the Bahamians, whose prime minister, Perry Christie, was part of a small group of Caricom leaders on the Haitian crisis, asked the Americans what would be their attitude to South Africa's assistance to Aristide.

The Americans, who had themselves made it clear that they would provide help to the Haitian police, at first balked at the idea but then relented, Observer sources said.

The aircraft left South Africa on February 29, a day later than expected and, travelling across the time zones, arrived in Jamaica on that same date. It should have refuelled in Jamaica before heading for Haiti.

By then though, the situation, which had turned into a claim and counter claim between Aristide and the Americans over whether he left Haiti voluntarily, was developing.

"Based on the sudden turn of events in Haiti on February 29, Prime Minister Patterson wrote to President Mbeki on 1 March 2004 advising him that the consignment (of arms) would be returned," Franklyn's statement said.

Aristide requested arms for Haitian police to help restore order

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