Former exile becomes Haiti's new leader

Former Haitian exile Gerard Latortue has been sworn in as the country’s prime minister, promising to unite the country after months of bloodshed and political strife that led to the ousting of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.

Under heavy security, Latortue took the oath of office yesterday before a crowd of 200 people, saying he was happy to serve his country.

“This is an occasion for hope for all Haitians,” he said. “Together we will form a responsible government that respects its institutions, and I will see that every dollar given to development projects will be well spent.”

Latortue, 69, is a United Nations career officer and business consultant who arrived in Haiti on Wednesday after living in Florida. He spent much of the 29-year Duvalier family dictatorship, which ended in 1986, in exile. He became foreign minister in 1988 for former President Leslie Manigat, who was toppled in a military coup.

Earlier, Latortue told pro-Aristide politicians that he wanted to hold legislative elections in six to eight months, Cabinet minister Leslie Voltaire said.

He also criticised Jamaica’s decision to host Aristide, who was expected to return to the Caribbean within days from exile in Africa.

Latortue told reporters that Aristide was no longer Haiti’s leader, dampening speculation that the former leader might use the trip to negotiate his return. Aristide insists he remains Haiti’s legitimate president.

Latortue said news of Aristide’s planned return to the Caribbean had caused “an increase in the tensions in Port-au-Prince”. He said he told Jamaican prime minister PJ Patterson that having Aristide so close was viewed as “an unfriendly act”.

Latortue said Patterson told him Aristide “had no other place to go”.

Aristide has been in Central African Republic since fleeing Haiti on February 29 aboard a US-chartered aircraft. His African hosts have made it clear they were providing only a temporary asylum, as Jamaica did on Thursday.

Patterson said Aristide would visit, with his wife, Mildred, for eight to 10 weeks to be reunited with their two young daughters, who had been sent to New York City for their safety.

Foreign minister KD Knight said Aristide was warned not to use Jamaica as a staging post for any desire to be reinstated in Haiti.

From Africa, Aristide has urged his followers to offer ”peaceful resistance” to the US “occupation”.

Patterson, chairman of the 15-nation Caribbean Community, also invited Latortue to visit Jamaica for talks on Haiti. Latortue said if he went, his trip would not overlap with Aristide’s arrival.

Aristide was wildly popular when he became Haiti’s first freely elected leader in 1990, but he lost support with the rise and violence and poverty.