Wednesday, 1 July 2009
Deposed Honduran President Jose Manuel Zelaya announced at a UN session that he would return to his country despite the threat of arrest.
Parliamentary speaker Roberto Micheletti was sworn in as president of the Central American state on Sunday after Zelaya was deposed in an army-backed coup, apparently supported by the country's Supreme Court. The coup has been condemned across the world.
Zelaya told the United Nations on Tuesday, "I'm going back to calm people down. I'm going to try and open dialogue and put things in order."
The interim government extended the curfew in the country by a further 72 hours on Tuesday after violence broke out following the coup. Two people are reported to have died with hundreds more injured or arrested.
Zelaya is due to fly to Honduras on Thursday accompanied by members of the UN General Assembly and the Organization of American States, along with the presidents of Argentina and Ecuador.
The country's Attorney General Luis Alberto Rubi warned on Tuesday that Zelaya would be arrested "as soon as he sets foot on Honduran soil." Rubi said the ousted leader faced 20 years in prison on a number of charges including abuse of authority.
Zelaya, 57, was flown out of the country to Costa Rica in his pyjamas just hours before polls were due to open for a non-binding referendum on ending the restriction on presidents' one four-year term.
The Honduran Supreme Court had called the referendum, which could have seen Zelaya extend his term of office, illegal.
However, Zelaya told the extraordinary UN session, "If offered the possibility to remain in power, I would not do it. I am going to fulfill my term up to January 27."
The UN General Assembly adopted a resolution condemning the coup and overwhelmingly called for Zelaya's immediate return to power. The resolution called on all the UN member states not to recognize any government other than Zelaya's.
Earlier Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Andrei Nesterenko said, "All actions by political players in the country must lie within the bounds of the law and the constitution," adding that Moscow welcomed the efforts by regional organizations and groups trying "to work out a solution within the framework of international law."
