Central Africans just want Aristide to go

0 Comments | AFP, March, 2004

BANGUI (AFP) — Central Africans questioned about the presence of Haiti's ousted leader Jean-Bertrand Aristide agree: he has to go. Now.

His stay was "beginning to cause a stir and could create disagreement that would not be useful", said one woman working in a bank.

Several opposition parties have come out against Aristide's stay.

When the 50-year-old former Roman Catholic priest arrived here after fleeing violent rebellion in his Caribbean homeland, the Central African Republic (CAR) officially stressed he was merely in transit.

Six days later he was still around, and doubts were mounting in the capital Bangui, where locals find their poverty-stricken, landlocked and coup-prone country has enough to worry about without also having a controversial...