The ousted president of Haiti — Jean Bertrand Aristide — held a rare press conference Tuesday in South Africa where he is living in exile. He maintained that he is still the elected president of Haiti despite being ousted in a U.S.-backed coup 13 months ago. “”I’m still the elected and the only elected president of the country, echoing the voice of eight million Haitians who asked for ending that repression, and to have national dialogue and by that, we’ll be organising free, fair democratic elections,” Aristide said. During this rare press conference Aristide said several steps must be taken in Haiti before truly fair elections could be held including the release of his supporters from jail.

Meanwhile law students at the University of California, Hastings, along with Haitian and U.S. attorneys are filing a petition tomorrow with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights on behalf of Haiti’s former Prime Minister Yvon Neptune who is in jail.