By:  Manoah Esipisu

Johannesburg - South Africa's ruling African National Congress party intensified its campaign on Friday for the return to Haiti of ousted leader Jean-Bertrand Aristide as part of a drive to restore order and end bloodshed in the Caribbean country.

Aristide was forced to leave Haiti 14 months ago in the face of an armed rebellion and pressure from Washington and Paris, and now lives in exile in South Africa.

He says his expulsion amounted to a coup and failed to bring peace to his country of eight million people, the poorest country in the Americas.

'Urgent steps need to be taken to end the brutalisation of Haiti's population'

"The constitutional order must be restored, which should include the creation of conditions for the return of all exiles, including president Aristide, and the organization of free, peaceful and fair democratic elections," the African National Congress (ANC) said in its weekly newsletter.

In a scathing commentary on events in Haiti, the ANC urged the United Nations to work with regional groups like the Caribbean Community (Caricom) to end what it said was the persecution of members of Aristide's Lavalas party, illegal arrests and summary executions.

"Urgent steps need to be taken to end the retaliation of Haiti's population and open the way for a meaningful national dialogue towards the restoration of the country's constitutional order," the ANC said.

"Yet this cannot happen while the remnants of Haiti's military past are allowed by the international community to continue with their program to silence the voices of the Haitian people," it said of the Haiti administration.

The ANC demanded that former prime minister Yvon Neptune be released or charged and said he had been on a hunger strike since last month. Neptune has been in detention without trial since last June although Haiti's laws require a court hearing within 48 hours of an arrest, it said.

United Nations Security Council envoys made a four-day visit to Haiti last month at a time of violence in the streets of the capital Port-au-Prince. The ambassadors expressed concern about the deep divisions among Haiti's numerous political parties ahead of elections planned for November.

Aristide, at a rare news conference last month, demanded his restoration as Haiti's leader and a national dialogue to pave the way for free and fair elections. He accused the United States, France and others he blames for his ouster of instigating bloodshed in Haiti and of pursuing a racist agenda.

Three days ago Haiti's supreme court overturned convictions of military leaders for a 1994 massacre of slum residents in Gonaives, reversing what human rights groups considered a victory for Haiti's foundering justice system.

The "Raboteau" trial centred on a dawn attack by gunmen on a pro-Aristide slum on April 22, 1994, at a time when Aristide supporters were routinely jailed or killed.