OAS diplomats urge return of ousted Honduran president

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras (AP) — Diplomats from across the hemisphere on Wednesday told Honduras' interim government to reinstate ousted President Manuel Zelaya during at-times confrontational talks aimed at ending a standoff that has paralyzed this impoverished Central American nation.

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

Micheletti, his voice at-times bristling with rage, scolded the diplomats for refusing to recognize what he insisted was the lawful removal of Zelaya under the Honduran constitution and for isolating his country and suspending aid to one of the poorest countries in the hemisphere.

"You don't know the truth or you don't want to know it," Micheletti said, imploring the delegates from the United States, Canada, Latin America and the Caribbean to "reflect on the damage you are doing to a country that has done nothing to you."

The diplomats 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 elected leader, whatever his behavior in recent years, was undemocratically removed."

The diplomats took turns urging Micheletti and his ministers to reconsider their position, but no breakthroughs were announced. The delegates, brought to Honduras by the Organization of American States, were scheduled to leave Thursday.

"Today we saw Hondurans sitting together, working on a Honduran solution," Ronald Robinson, a Jamaican representing the Caribbean Community, said during the meeting. "For me, I thought it was a good step in the right direction."

After the talks with Micheletti, the delegation met with Zelaya in the Brazilian Embassy, where the ousted president has been holed up with dozens of supporters since sneaking back into the country from his forced exile.

The diplomats returned to their hotel later without commenting on their meetings to waiting journalists. Organization of American States Secretary-General Jose Miguel Insulza would only say there would be a news conference Thursday to discuss the progress.

Tensions rose before Wednesday's meeting, with riot police firing tear gas to disperse about 200 Zelaya supporters protesting near the U.S. and Brazilian embassies.

Micheletti and his supporters say 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," Insulza said before the round of meetings started.