HAITI

Independent: US faces mounting international fury over Aristide's 'forced' exit

South Africa added its voice last night to a growing international chorus questioning the circumstances surrounding Jean-Bertrand Aristide's departure from Haiti and demanded an investigation into allegations that the US forcibly removed a democratically elected president from office.

In a thinly veiled attack on the Bush administration, South Africa's Foreign Affairs Minister, Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, said that if Mr Aristide had been prised from power against his will, it would have "serious consequences and ramifications for the respect of the rule of law and democracy the world over".

The issue, fuelled by direct accusations by Mr Aristide that he was, in effect, kidnapped and hustled into exile in the Central African Republic under conditions that he likened to imprisonment, has once again thrust a spotlight on the Bush administration's conduct of foreign policy and risks becoming a liability for President Bush as he begins his re-election campaign.