Exiled Aristide bidding to come home

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Jean-Bertrand Aristide, the former priest and champion of the poor who was twice ousted as Haiti's president, is bidding to return home from forced exile as his country struggles to recover from a devastating earthquake.

Mr. Aristide made a tearful appearance at an airport hotel in Johannesburg Friday, tantalizingly close to the airport that could lead him home after being exiled here since 2004. But even as he spoke of his yearning to go home, he remained silent on the key question of whether Haiti's authorities would allow him to return.

"As far as we are concerned, we are ready to leave today, tomorrow, at any time, to join the people of Haiti, to share in their suffering, help rebuild the country, moving from misery to poverty with dignity," a visibly emotional Mr. Aristide said.

The first democratically elected president of Haiti, Mr. Aristide said he had friends around the world who could organize an airplane to bring him back to Haiti with medical supplies and emergency aid.

But he refused to take any questions from reporters and gave no indication that any emergency flight was likely to happen soon. South African officials said they knew nothing of any concrete plans for Mr. Aristide to return home.

Analysts in South Africa predicted that Haiti's government is unlikely to allow the former president to return, since his popularity among large segments of the population could add further instability to Haiti in the aftermath of the catastrophic earthquake.

Mr. Aristide was once a symbol of hope for Haiti, but later in his political career he was a highly controversial leader who was blamed for human-rights abuses and violence.

In the 1980s, he was a Catholic priest in the slums of Haiti, preaching the liberation theology that encouraged revolution among the poor. He was elected president in a landslide victory in 1990, but was overthrown in a military coup in 1991.

After years of exile in Venezuela and the United States, he was reinstated to power in 1994 with the help of heavy pressure from the U.S. government, including the deployment of 20,000 troops.

He stepped down at the end of his term in 1996, constitutionally barred from seeking a second consecutive term. In 2000, he won election again, but human-rights groups criticized his campaign for using violence and intimidation. Opposition parties boycotted the election and refused to recognize his victory.

Over the next four years his government was plagued by protests against human-rights abuses, corruption, economic woes and high unemployment. His armed supporters were accused of attacking journalists and political opponents.

The anti-government protests intensified in 2004 and turned violent, and Mr. Aristide was forced to flee the country. He later complained that he was "kidnapped" and bundled onto a U.S. airplane by U.S. security agents. He was flown to the Central African Republic and later to South Africa, where the government gave him a villa in Pretoria.

Since then, he has remained largely in seclusion. He became an honorary research fellow at the University of South Africa, studied the Zulu language and received a doctorate in African languages.