ARISTIDE. to arrive in Jamaica next week

Jamaica has warned ousted Haitian president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, that he won't be allowed to use Jamaica as a "launching pad" to regain power in his country.

But the government's decision to host Aristide for up to 10 weeks has raised concerns in Port-au-Prince and appeared yesterday to place in the balance a visit to Kingston by Haiti's interim prime minister, Gerard Latortue, to lobby for his government's recognition by the Caribbean Community (Caricom).

PATTERSON. expected to meet with interim Haitian prime minister this weekend

Latortue said in Port-au-Prince yesterday that Aristide's return to the Caribbean and to Jamaica so soon after his February 29 ostensible resignation and exile in the Central African Republic could be destabilising to Haiti and he branded Jamaica's decision unfriendly.

"Having former President Aristide in Jamaica, so close, is in our view. an unfriendly act," Latortue, a former United Nations official, said.

KNIGHT. Aristide will be able to communicate freely, so long as this is not an attempt to use Jamaica as a launching pad for his desired reinstatement

He suggested he was weighing whether to come to Jamaica for a weekend meeting with Prime Minister P J Patterson, Caricom's chairman, and up to last night Jamaican officials could give no definitive date for the conference. They said that Latortue would come either today or tomorrow.

But at a press conference yesterday, Jamaica's foreign minister, K D Knight, said that Jamaica had set out to Aristide clear parameters for his stay in Jamaica - a point he repeated in a radio interview later in the day.

Haiti's prime minister, Gerard Latortue, greets reporters during a news conference in a hotel in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, yesterday. (Photo: AP)

"It has been made very clear to the former president that Jamaica is not to be used as a launching pad to further any desire to be reinstated in Haiti and there is a clear understanding that has been arrived at that this position will be honoured," Knight said at his press conference.

Aristide would be able to communicate freely, Knight said, "so long as this is not an attempt to use Jamaica as a launching pad for his desired reinstatement".

In any event, Knight made clear that the weekend meeting between Latortue and Patterson - if it happens - is "not to be interpreted as a recognition of a new regime".

This decision is to be made by Caricom leaders at the summit in St Kitts later this month, but it is expected that the Community will set a series of tests for Haiti to meet before it can resume its place as a member of the group.

Aristide has accused the United States of all but kidnapping him and bundling him out of the country after the US, Canada and France had jettisoned a Caricom power-sharing compromise under which Aristide would have to cohabit with the Opposition during the final two years of his term. The US has denied the charges and said that Aristide asked for help to leave Haiti in the face of advancing rebels.

Nonetheless, Caricom felt itself betrayed by the behaviour of the Western troika, and has said that the manner of Aristide's ouster set a dangerous precedent for the removal of elected leaders everywhere. The 15-member group has called for an international investigation of Aristide's claim and has won support from the 53-nation African Union.

On Thursday, Patterson announced that Jamaica would allow Aristide and his wife, Mildred, to stay on the island temporarily, ahead of permanent asylum outside the region, likely in South Africa. The Jamaican stay would allow the Aristides to reunite with their infant daughters who are now in the United States.

At the same time, Patterson signalled Jamaica's and Caricom's acceptance of the changed situation on the ground in Haiti, referring to Aristide as the former president, acknowledging that a new president had been sworn-in and that Latortue was a man who commanded respect.

In Bangui, the capital of the Central African Republic, where Aristide has been since his overthrow, officials said that Patterson would arrive there on Sunday to escort Aristide to Jamaica. But last night Jamaica House, the prime minister's office, denied this.

Members of the US Congressional Black Caucus would also travel with Aristide, Central African Republic Foreign Minister Guy Moskit said.

Knight has rejected suggestions that Aristide's return to the region and his proximity to Haiti would, of itself, be destabilising and dismissed suggestions that hosting the ousted president was an unfriendly act.

The foreign minister told his radio interviewers: "What has to be understood very clearly is that Jamaica and Caricom have shown very clearly that what is needed is peace and stability in Haiti and that is why the prime minister of Jamaica, as chairman of Caricom, took such huge steps to put in place the Caricom Action Plan (the power-sharing initiative).

"Therefore, it is not really necessary for either the prime minister of Jamaica or Caricom to really be given a lecture on security because had it not been for that commitment to Haiti, commitment to democracy, commitment to peace and stability, to the socio-economic development of Haiti and good neighbourliness, Caricom and Jamaica would not have acted as they both did."

Jamaica had briefed the United States, Canada and France about its intention to have Aristide here ahead of the public announcement of the decision.

Yesterday, US Embassy spokesperson, Orna Blum, echoing the State Department's position, said that the United States hoped that the visit would not disrupt efforts to consolidate a transitional government in Haiti.

Noting that P J Patterson has underscored Caricom's commitment to the democratic process in Haiti, Blum said: "I hope that his (Aristide's) visit will be consistent with this process."

'What was I thinking?' Chris Brown speaks out

Fashion Saturday

Colourful Coif