The Haitian government has a diplomatic passport issued Monday for former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, giving him the opportunity to enter the country of which he was ousted by an armed insurrection in 2004, told AFP an official Haiti.
"The passport was issued Monday. All the formalities have been completed," the official said under condition of anonymity.
The passport must be presented to a lawyer for Mr. Aristide, Ira Kurzban. The latter, based in Miami, was unable to confirm this information.
"If they issued a passport, they have not told me," said the lawyer told AFP.Asked about the chances of a quick return of the former president in Port-au-Prince, Mr. Kurzban said: "I think it comes close, but we're not there yet."
The lawyer, who was recently in Port-au-Prince, plans to return to the Haitian capital in the coming days, but he would not say when.
The Haitian government announced last week that he was willing to surrender a passport to the former president if he so requested.
In a statement released mid-January, Mr.Aristide installed in South Africa, explained wanting to return home for medical reasons and also "to help serve my brothers and sisters in Haiti as a private citizen in the field of education."
If his return is confirmed, Mr. Aristide still popular among the poor, would be the second former president to return to Haiti after Jean-Claude Duvalier.The former dictator "Baby Doc" has returned to Port-au-Prince on January 16 after 25 years of exile in France, while the country was facing a crisis consecutive election in the first round of the disputed presidential election on November 28.
The outgoing president, Rene Preval, had originally due to hand this Monday, Feb. 7, but its mandate is extended, pending the second round of presidential elections, scheduled March 20. The consultation will oppose Mirlande Manigat, an intellectual age 70, the singer Michel Martelly, 49.
The Electoral Council has reversed last week's first round results, excluding the race of the candidate Mr.Preval, Jude Celestin.
Jean-Bertrand Aristide, 57, a former opponent of the Duvalier dictatorship (1957-86) and priest advocate of "liberation theology", was first elected to lead the country in 1990 before being expelled the country eight months later by a military coup.
Revenue at the head of state in October 1994 through a military intervention by the United States, he completed his term in 1996, leaving power to his heir, the current President Rene Preval.
The former slum priest, relieved of his vows by the Vatican for a dispensation to marry, was reelected in November 2000.But he was forced into exile in February 2004 under the threat of armed insurrection coupled with international pressure, including U.S. and France, who accuse it of incompetence.
