The United States had understood that former Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide had secured refuge in South Africa and did not wait for Pretoria’s formal consent to accept him before a U.S. plane took off from Port-au-Prince with Mr. Aristide on board on Feb. 29, U.S. officials said yesterday. The former president, who has been in exile in the Central African Republic for eight days, called on his supporters yesterday to resist peacefully Haiti’s “occupation,” a day after at least five Haitians and a foreign journalist were killed in a massive demonstration in the capital celebrating his departure. On the day that Mr. Aristide left the country, Washington, which had contacted the South African administrative capital, Pretoria, while he still was on the ground, was certain that the response from the government of President Thabo Mbeki, a strong supporter of the former Haitian leader, would be positive. Full Story
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