Haiti's Ambassador to Jamaica Jean-Gabriel Augustin is back in the island and is intent on ensuring, he said, continued friendship and good diplomatic relations with the Jamaican Government.

His brief recall, he said, had been done to facilitate "consultations" with the new administration in Haiti.

"The government of my country recalled me for consultations and I went back... The government was new so the prime minister... and the minister of the foreign office wanted to give me new instructions," Ambassador Augustin told the Observer yesterday.

But he acknowledged that there had been some tension between the two countries in the recent past.

"The government of my country wants to turn the page, to forget about the dark moment that saddened the relationship between us and Jamaica... We want to promote social and economic development between the two countries," Augustin said yesterday.

"The reason for my being here is to pursue the same warm friendship, the same cordial friendship that I think existed in the past... I am here to make sure the friendship continues."

He returned to the island on Monday, three months after he was recalled by Haiti's interim prime minister Gerard Latortue. The March move marked the official collapse of diplomatic relations between Kingston and Port-au-Prince after Prime Minister PJ Patterson offered temporary asylum to ousted Haitian president Jean-Bertrand Aristide.

At the time, Aristide was in the Central African Republic where he had been taken following his controversial departure from Haiti. Aristide has steadily insisted he was forcibly removed from power by the US and France, a claim both countries have vehemently denied.

Aristide has since taken up temporary asylum in South Africa.
Ambassador Augustin's return, Monday, follows a recent letter from Latortue to Patterson, expressing regret at the strained relations between the two islands and a desire to have the situation corrected.

Yesterday, the ambassador expressed gratitude to Jamaica for its assistance during the recent flood rains that left thousands dead in Haiti and the Dominican Republic.

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