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Aristide’s birthday, our people will be ignorant of all …that is happening inHaiti”. 642This ignorance was not helped by the lack of government transparency on thematter. The Minister of Foreign Affairs was famously tight-lipped about the extentof the expenses Aristide’s sojourn in South Africa was costing the state 643 and therationale for the state’s offer of asylum. The Democratic Alliance supplemented itsenquiries in Parliament with a letter to the chairman of the National ConventionalArms Control Committee (NCACC), Professor Kader Asmal, asking whether apermit had been granted for the export of the arms and equipment to Haiti. 644 Afurther complicating factor was whether personnel had been dispatched in respectof the equipment, in which case this would constitute a deployment of SouthAfrican troops abroad, an action that requires Parliamentary oversight.On 13 May 2004, the ANC commended the decision of the Cabinet to accede toCARICOM’s request for Aristide’s asylum in South Africa. It noted that, “Thedecision was a reasonable and responsible response to a request from a regionalmultilateral body that has long been seized with the resolution of the crisis in Haiti”,and that “South Africa has a responsibility to assist in whatever way it can toachieve a peaceful and lawful resolution of Haiti’s current crisis”. 6457.3.4. International implications: A case of neoclassical realist restraint?The primary international consequence of Aristide’s asylum in South Africa was hisphysical removal from the Caribbean, where his presence was viewed by the US and642 Thabo Mbeki, “State of the Nation Address”, Parliamentary Hansard, 6 February2004.643 See Chapter 5 and Parliament of South Africa. 2008. “Question No. 528: Published inInternal Question Paper No. 10 of 20 March 2008”, electronic Hansard of theParliamentary Monitoring Group. Accessed online at:http://www.pmg.org.za/node/14848 on 22 November, 2010.644 Haiti Info. 2004. “DA sends letter to Asmal over SA arms to Haiti”, 5 March 2004.645 African National Congress. 2004. “Press Statement: Cabinet’s decision on Aristide”,13 May, 2004. Accessed online at:http://www.anc.org.za/show.php?include=docs/pr/2004/pr0513a.html on 8 December,2010.252