Ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya tearfully recounted to the UN General Assembly (GA) on Tuesday his pre-dawn gunpoint rousting and forced flight to Costa Rica then vowed to return to Tegucigalpa, Honduras, on Thursday, escorted by two international diplomats and two Latin American presidents.

Zelaya arrived in New York Tuesday morning from Nicaragua at the invitation of GA President Miguel d'Escoto Brockmann, a formerNicaraguan foreign minister, just hours before his address to the 192-member body, said a spokesman for d'Escoto, Enrique Yeves.

"Thursday I will be returning" to Tegucigalpo, capital of Honduras, Zelaya told reporters after the speech. "Miguel d'Escoto,the president of the GA, has said that he is going to travel with me to our capital. Today, Cristina Kirchner, president of Argentina, said she will accompany me on the aircraft. The secretary-general of the Organization of American States, Miguel Insulza, will be with me. President Rafael Correa of Ecuador will accompany me on the airplane. So, this is a struggle of all of us."

The exile "arrived this morning and went to the hotel to changeclothes," said Yeves. "When the president heard he was going to Washington for the OAS meeting he was invited here."

Zelaya left later in the day for Washington.

The garrulous Zelaya, wearing an over-size dark and shining suit he adjusted as he spoke, sometimes leaning casually on the dark green podium, welcomed a resolution the GA had just passed which condemned the coup d'etat and demanded restoration of a constitutional government. He said it expressed the indignation of the people of Honduras.

"This resolution is historic," he said. "It is significant and it will empower every last citizen of the world."

Zelaya welcomed the support by regional groups from the Americas to Europe, which all condemned the military coup.

He listed names of scores of head of states from Latin America and elsewhere and international figures who had telephoned him of their support.

"There always are those who wish to protect the status quo," Zelaya said. "It is always difficult to bring about change. The United Nations is one such instrument to uphold democracy and freedom. I would like to applaud this organization. Thank you all."

While "a number of charges" had been leveled against him, he pointed out: "I have not been put on trial. Nobody has told me what my crime is. No accusations have been brought to my attention by a judge."

Zelaya recalled he was elected in 2005 to a four-year term beginning in 2006 and intends to finish his term.

"I never thought I would have to hark back to the old days," he said, referring to the Cold War era when Latin America was rife with rebellion and putsch.

Zelaya has been accused with attempting to engineer the possibility of another term, forbidden by the present Constitution, seeking out a vote that was to have occurred on Sunday, which the army balked at when asked to distribute ballot boxes.

"I sought to launch a public survey," he said.

His opponents alleged "this constituted a crime," Zelaya said. "The law is not binding. It's comparable to Gallup Polls, a polling entity. They are surveys that are used to take the temperature of the public."

The poll never occurred.

"I was awoken by shouts, hammering at door below, screams," he said, his voice becoming emotionally charged. "These are moments I do not wish to remember. It breaks my heart to see humanity slide backwards."

As his eyes welled with tears, he recounted hearing rifle shots and attempting to telephone friends "to warn them of what was happening, and in particular a journalist who was in the area."

He said at least eight heavy rifles were pointed at his chest by soldiers in full combat gear, "Drop that mobile phone, or we will shoot," the men said.

"My mobile phone was ripped from my hand. 'If it is your order, shoot me,' I said. They grabbed my arms and said, 'we're taking you away.'"

Zelaya said he was in an airplane 15 minutes later and in Costa Rica 45 minutes after that.

"I was dumped at the airport still wearing my night clothes," he said.

The ousted president, at a news conference, said: "I have always said anyone who is afraid should not become a politician."

Source: Xinhua