Former Haitian president sends condolences

JOHANNESBURG Jan 13 (Reuters) - Former Haiti President Jean Bertrand Aristide, exiled in South Africa, sent his condolences on Wednesday to his countrymen after a devastating earthquake hit the Caribbean nation.

"My wife and I stand with the people of our country and mourn the death and destruction that has befallen Haiti," Aristide said in a statement issued on his behalf by the South African Department of International Relations and Cooperation.

"It is a tragedy that defies expression; a tragedy that compels all people to the highest levels of human compassion and solidarity," the statement said.

After decades of dictatorship, Aristide, a former Roman Catholic priest, became the country's first elected president in 1990 but was ousted by the military a few months later. In 2000, he again assumed the presidency but was forced into exile in South Africa four years later amid growing violence in his country. (Reporting by Peroshni Govender; Editing by Dominic Evans)

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