Former Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide said on Wednesday ready to return home, three days after Jean-Claude Duvalier, aka "Baby Doc", has ended his exile, returning to Port-au-Prince to everyone's surprise.
Aristide, a former priest in exile in South Africa since 2004, has long claimed that he was ousted under pressure from the United States and France.
"Since my arrival forced on the African continent there are six and a half years, the Haitian people have stopped asking my return to Haiti," Aristide wrote in a statement sent to AFP.
"In my case, I'm ready.Again, I'm ready to go today, tomorrow, anytime, "he says.
This statement comes as the spokesman Jean-Claude Duvalier, Henri-Robert Sterlin said that the former dictator hoped to regain power.
Haiti is mired in a political crisis arising from the disputed first round of presidential elections on 28 November.
Aristide was the first Haitian president to be elected democratically.He was ousted in a revolt.
The purpose of his return, he assures, "is clear: to help serve my brothers and sisters in Haiti as a private citizen in the field of education."
"This return is also required for medical reasons: I have been strongly advised not to spend the next winter (Southern, ed), South Africa, for in six years I was operated eye six times," said yet Jean-Bertrand Aristide, 57.
On Tuesday, a lawyer based in the U.S. in contact with him indicated that the former president had asked to renew his Haitian passport, but that request was refused by the Haitian authorities.
"Aristide has the right to return to Haiti, but was forbidden," said Brian Concannon.
