Manning
Lindsay Mackoon, Gleaner Writer
PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad:
TRINIDAD AND Tobago fully endorsed Jamaica's decision to host ousted Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, Prime Minister Patrick Manning said Thursday afternoon.
"This country was consulted before President Aristide was allowed to spend some time in Jamaica," Mr. Manning told a news conference following the weekly Cabinet meeting."My Government fully endorses that decision."
At the same time, he said the decision by new Haitian Prime Minister Gerard Latortue to withdraw that country's ambassador from Jamaica was "a sad one."
But the matter, he explained , will be discussed at next week's intercessional CARICOM meeting in St. Kitts.
Regarding the Jamaican Government's refusal to recognise the new Haitian Government, Mr. Manning declared Trinidad and Tobago had not yet taken a position on the matter."Arising out of the CARICOM meeting, we will be able to articulate something more comprehensible."
ASYLUM
Asked further whether Trinidad and Tobago was willing to offer asylum to the deposed president, Mr. Manning said: "The question does not arise."
Mr. Aristide who arrived in Jamaica on Monday is to spend up to 10 weeks there, reunited with his two daughters.
On February 29, he was taken into exile in the Central African Republic after months of anti-Government demonstrations had claimed many Haitian lives.
Caribbean leaders have called on the United Nations to mount an independent investigation into Mr. Mr. Aristide's removal from office and hasty departure from Haiti.
