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Diplomats urge return of ousted Zelaya
(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-10-08 09:38

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras: Diplomats from across the hemisphere on Wednesday told Honduras' interim government to restore democracy to the impoverished nation and reinstate President Manuel Zelaya, calling his ouster in a coup a mistake that must be fixed.

Diplomats urge return of ousted Zelaya

Carlos Lopez (L), a representative of de facto leader Roberto Micheletti, speaks with Peter Kent, Canada's minister of state of foreign affairs for the Americas during a meeting at a hotel in Tegucigalpa October 7, 2009. [Agencies] Diplomats urge return of ousted Zelaya

Delegations from about a dozen countries held talks with representatives of Zelaya and the coup-installed government behind closed doors in Honduras' capital, then later met with interim President Roberto Micheletti in an at-times angry confrontation broadcast on local television.

Micheletti, his voice bristling with rage, scolded the diplomats for refusing to recognize what he insisted was the lawful removal of Zelaya under the Honduran Constitution and urged them to recognize elections scheduled for November 29.

"We have been fighting for many years for our Constitution," Micheletti said during the meeting in the presidential palace. "And we will keep fighting no matter what happens."

The delegation sat stone-faced, a few rubbing their eyes in apparent fatigue during his outburst. Canada's minister of state for the Americas, Peter Kent, then told Micheletti that the international community respects the Honduran Constitution, but it oppose the military's ouster of Zelaya.

"However it happened, a mistake was made on June 28," Kent told the interim president. "A democratically leader, whatever his behavior in recent years, was undemocratically removed."

No breakthroughs were announced.

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Micheletti says Zelaya's military-backed ouster was legal because it was sanctioned by Honduras' Supreme Court after he defied of a court order that he drop a referendum on changing the constitution. Most of the international community maintains the coup was illegal and must be reversed.

"We are not here to create a debate. We are here to find concrete solutions to a situation that cannot be prolonged," Organization of American States Secretary-General Jose Miguel Insulza said prior to the start of the meetings.

Insulza presented a proposal that would restore Zelaya as head of a unity government and offer amnesty to both the coup leaders and the deposed president, who faces abuse of power and other charges in Honduras.

The proposal, which also requires Zelaya to abandon any ambitions to change the constitution, is similar to one proposed months ago by Costa Rican President Oscar Arias and rejected by the interim government.

Zelaya gave the negotiators an ultimatum, calling for the postponement of upcoming presidential elections if he is not restored to office before October 15. That proposal is certain to anger the interim government, which views the elections - scheduled before Zelaya's June 28 overthrow - as the best hope of moving past the crisis.

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