Former Haitian president Jean Bertrand Aristide, who fled his country amid an armed uprising, left Jamaica on Sunday for exile in South Africa, which he called his "temporary home."
An Aristide spokesman said the former Haitian leader left Jamaica with his wife and two daughters in a private jet supplied by the South African government of President Thabo Mbeki.
"After two visits to South Africa, it will now be our temporary home until we are back in Haiti," Aristide said shortly before leaving Jamaica.
Aristide said he remained in "deep communion" with the Haitian people and that he stood in "solidarity" with all those affected by the heavy floods that have killed almost 1,000 people during the last week.
"What we have in Haiti today is bad. What we have in Haiti today reminds us of what is going on in Iraq," Aristide said.
"Unfortunately, we don't see too many people talking about that unacceptable situation," he said.
In mid-March, Jamaican Prime Minister Percival Patterson invited Aristide to his country for a 10-week visit with his two daughters, who traveled there from the US to meet him. Aristide had voiced his desire to stay in South Africa since his ouster.
Aristide left his own country amid mounting disaffection over his increasingly totalitarian methods, cronyism, corruption and failure to make a dent in the calamitous economic problems facing Haiti.
But the former priest was set to receive a red-carpet welcome at the Johannesburg International Airport yesterday, where the South African government said Mbeki would "officially receive and welcome" him.
Aristide will hold a press conference with Foreign Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma today, the statement said. Aristide's spokesman said the former president will live in Pretoria.
In Haiti, Aristide's political opponents welcomed his exile from the Caribbean.
"The fact that he is getting away from Haiti's coast is a good thing, since he was using the Jamaican territory to destabilize the democratic transition process," Micha Gaillard, leader of the National Congress of Democratic Movements, said.
"We hope the South African government will make Jean Bertrand Aristide understand that its hospitality does not represent support to block Haiti's development," Gaillard said.
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