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Ousted Honduras President Manuel Zelaya holds a diplomatic note from the US State Department after meeting with Hillary Clinton in her office in Washington - Source: Reuters -
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Ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya accepted a US-backed
effort by Costa Rican President Oscar Arias to mediate an end to
the political crisis in Honduras and said talks with his rivals
would begin on Thursday.
"Our first meeting is set for Thursday, in Costa Rica," Zelaya,
told Honduran radio from Washington, saying he would meet the
protagonists of the June 28 coup that ousted him.
But Arias, a Nobel Peace Prize winner, faces mediating between
sharply opposed positions.
Zelaya said that his reinstatement as president was non-negotiable,
adding of the talks, "What this is, is not a negotiation, this is
the planning of the exit of the coup leaders."
In Honduras, Roberto Micheletti, who was appointed president by
Honduran lawmakers after the coup, also said he accepted Arias as a
mediator, but added his government maintained his position that
Zelaya could not return.
Zelaya, a leftist whose ouster was sparked by his efforts to change
presidential term limits, spoke after meeting US Secretary of State
Hillary Clinton.
She urged him to negotiate rather than try to force his way back
into the country.
Zelaya had tried to fly home on Sunday, but the interim government
stopped his plane from landing.
At least one person was killed when troops clashed with
pro-Zelaya protesters who went to the airport in the capital,
Tegucigalpa, to meet him.
The coup in the impoverished Central American coffee and textile
exporter has been widely condemned abroad, and posed a diplomatic
challenge for US President Barack Obama.
The Organization of American States took the rare step to suspend
Honduras on Saturday after Honduras' interim authorities defied its
ultimatum to reinstate Zelaya.
But the group has failed to find a solution to the crisis.
Arias role
Confirming that his mediation had been accepted by both sides in
the Honduran crisis, Arias declined to speculate about the
prospects of success.
But he told a news conference in the Costa Rican capital San Jose:
"What I would like is not to let them leave until there is an
agreement".
Clinton said all issues should now be settled in talks with Arias,
who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1987 for helping to end political
violence in Central America.
"I believe it is a better route for him to follow at this time than
to attempt to return in the face of the implacable opposition of
the de facto regime," Clinton told reporters, referring to
Zelaya.
"So, instead of another confrontation that might result in a loss
of life, let's try the dialogue process and see where that leads,
and let the parties determine all the various issues as they
should," she added.
While backing a restoration of the democratic, constitutional
order in Honduras, Clinton did not explicitly call for Zelaya to
return to power, saying this should be negotiated by the parties
themselves.
Some analysts wondered whether the United States may be tempering
its support for Zelaya, although Obama said he said he should
return to power.
"America supports now the restoration of the democratically-elected
president of Honduras, even though he has strongly opposed American
policies," Obama said in a speech in Russia.
"We do so not because we agree with him. We do so because we
respect the universal principle that people should choose their own
leaders, whether they are leaders we agree with or not," he
added.
The United States has repeatedly condemned the coup in Honduras,
which has a population of seven million and is the third poorest
country in the Americas after Haiti and Nicaragua.
Arguments for ouster
Defying the international pressure, Micheletti has insisted Zelaya
was legally removed. Micheletti said his interim government had
accepted Arias as a mediator, given the Costa Rican's high
profile.
But he told local radio in Tegucigalpa, "We maintain our position
that President Zelaya should not return. He committed crimes and he
must pay for them."
Micheletti's interim government says the ouster was a
constitutional transition carried out by the army and supported by
the Supreme Court because Zelaya had illegally tried to organize a
vote on changing presidential term limits.
Zelaya took power in 2006 and had been due to leave office in
2010.
He had riled the country's traditional ruling elite with his
leftward shift and growing alliance with Venezuela's socialist
President Hugo Chavez.
In the Honduran capital, several thousand anti-Zelaya demonstrators
packed into a main plaza, waving blue and white national flags and
posters ridiculing Chavez, who many accused of meddling for backing
Zelaya - nicknamed Mel.
"We don't want Mel back. Those people were going to take us to
socialism," said Carlos Ramos, a teacher and retired air force
officer who was taking part in the protest.
Several thousand supporters of Zelaya led by his wife, Xiomara,
staged their own rally.
"They say there is peace in the country, but how can there be peace
if people cannot leave their neighborhoods ... if there is a
curfew, if they are suspending people's rights and the army is out
repressing the people," Xiomara Zelaya said.
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