"It's Not If I Go Back, But When"

By Joelle Attinger, Michael Kramer and Jean-Bertrand Aristide.

TIME's Joelle Attinger and Michael Kramer interviewed Aristide last week in Washington. Excerpts:

Q. TIME: Why should the U.S. care about Haiti?

A. Aristide: We have clear mutual interests. The leaders of Haiti's army are involved in drug smuggling, and Haiti has become the second largest country in the hemisphere dealing with drugs, which bring in over $200 million a year. It's also better for Haitians to stay in Haiti rather than leave the country. My seven months in office prove they would stay home.

Also, the U.S. is the superpower of the world. You have people in Haiti who are defying the world by defying the U.S., and it's important not to give a green light to people like this.

Q. TIME: Under what conditions will you return?

A. Aristide: It's not a question of if I go back, but of when. We want the coup leaders removed according to the Governors Island agreement. Only then will I return to Haiti.

Q. TIME: If the price of democracy is martyrdom, are you willing to pay it?

A. Aristide: I assume my responsibility. If the Haitian people want me to be there, it is my responsibility to say yes.

Q. TIME: Senators Bob Dole and Jesse Helms complain you are not a democrat and therefore not worth fighting for.

A. Aristide: I would invite them to look at my record. We brought a climate of peace and political stability. Human-rights violations declined, and we began closing the doors on the drug trade.

Q. TIME: There are also reports that you are a depressive who recently had a nervous breakdown.

A. Aristide: I know about character assassination. They said worse things about Martin Luther King.

Q. TIME: Do you regret the speeches you made that seemed to endorse mob violence?

A. Aristide: Let's put the text in its context. The coup had started. I was using words to answer the bullets.

Q. TIME: What went through your mind when your friend Justice Minister Guy Malary was assassinated?

A. Aristide: I would prefer not to feel I was right, but I was. I told everyone that this would happen as a result of the Governors Island agreement. But I feel at peace with my conscience, because I initially refused to sign the agreement.

Q. TIME: The U.S. forced you to sign?

A. Aristide: (pause) After hours, I decided to sign.