#4831:Flawed Haiti Elections Threaten Aid (fwd)

[Robert Corbett <bcorbett@netcom.com>]

From:nozier@tradewind.net

Wednesday August 9 8:39 PM ET  Flawed Haiti Elections Threaten Aid 
 By NICOLE WINFIELD, Associated Press Writer 

  UNITED NATIONS (AP) - Haiti's flawed elections have not only     
deepened the country's political crisis but threaten the resumption
ofadly needed international aid, Secretary-General Kofi Annan said in
areport Wednesday. Although the May vote itself was relatively peaceful,
violence has increased significantly since, with opposition leaders
attacked - often with the complicity of Haiti's U.N.-trained police and
some judicial authorities, Annan said. He warned that the new U.N.
civilian mission in Haiti was at risk because of the ``current climate
of  political turmoil and intolerance.'' Continued U.N. support for
Haiti hinges on the existence of``credible'' officials who enjoy the
support of Haiti's people and world governments, he said. The European
Union, the United States and Canada have threatened to withhold
international aid if the results from the May 21 local and legislative
elections aren't corrected. The Organization of American States has said
it found flaws in how some winning percentages for the Senate were
calculated. The Lavalas Family party of former President Jean-Bertrand
Aristide won dominant control of the legislature in the vote and
following runoff elections. Aristide's party also won 80 percent of city
halls and a majority of urban and rural assemblies.In his report, Annan
said the international community had hoped that the elections would have
ended Haiti's political turmoil, which began in January 1999 when
Aristide's hand-picked successor President  Rene Preval shut down
Parliament to terminate a prolonged power struggle with the majority
party. But the outcome of the vote, Annan said, ``has been a deepening
of the political crisis, increased tension and violence and the possible
installation of a Senate which - if the crucial calculation question is
not addressed - would cast a shadow over the Parliament's democratic
legitimacy and thereby threaten the early resumption of much-needed
international financial assistance.'' Annan's report was the first to
the General Assembly on the work of the International Civilian Support 
Mission in Haiti, known by its acronym MICAH. MICAH, which started March
16, replaced a three-year mission to train Haiti's national police
force, which replaced a corrupt army that killed as many as 4,000
people. The mission's aim is to help bring development and democracy to
Haiti, as well as to promote human rights and reform the justice
system.  Aristide, constitutionally barred from consecutive terms in
office, stepped down in 1996 and is a favorite  to win a re-election bid
in November.