| Former Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide is eligible for a passport but has not applied for one, Haitian officials said Monday.pThat followed a letter from the ousted leader's U.S. lawyer, Ira Kurzban, telling officials at Haiti's foreign affairs and interior ministries that he understood they had agreed to issue Aristide a diplomatic passport./ppI kindly request that his diplomatic passport be issued immediately and that plans for his return commence immediately, he said. The letter was forwarded to reporters./ppBut Interior Minister Paul-Antoine Bien-Aime said in an official letter, sent later Monday, that no passport had been requested. It appears that to date, neither ministry had received a request for issuance or renewal of passports from the former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, he wrote./ppAristide is a former priest and liberation theologist who rose to become Haiti's first democratically elected president. He was overthrown in a coup, restored to power, then ousted again in 2004. His return was forced by the threat of a U.S. military invasion; debate has raged for years over what role the U.S. played in his departures./p |
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