6608: Haitian opposition meets in DR (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Yacine Khelladi <yacine@yacine.net>


> DR1 Daily News -- Thursday, 11 January 2001

> 10. Haitian opposition meets in DR
> The Partido Revolucionario Dominicano and the Internacional Socialista
> coordinated a meeting of the Haitian opposition leaders in Barahona.
> The leading spokesmen of the Haitian opposition met at the Barceló
> Bahoruco Beach Resort hotel. The president of the PRD, the incumbent
> party in the DR, Hatuey de Camps and Peggy Cabral, widow of former PRD
> leader, the late José Francisco Peña Gómez, hosted the event that
> sought to discuss aspects that would lead to governability in Haiti.
> Meeting in Barahona were: Leslie Manigat, Gerard Pierre Charles, Evans
> Paul, Serge Gilles, and Victor Benoit.
> They require that before any kind of agreement is reached the results
> of the presidential elections carried out in November 2000 and the
> congressional and municipal elections carried out in May 2000 be
> annulled.
> They want a democratic transition government to be created with the
> participation of all sectors of Haiti. This transition body would
> designate an independent electoral court that would call to free
> election at all levels.
> During their meeting here they denounced the use of terrorist methods
> in Haiti for the authorities to annihilate the opposition.
> De Camps said that the meeting was called not to conspire against
> president-elect Jean Bertrand Aristide, but to provide a space for
> dialogue between the opposition and Aristide partisans. The politician
> says that the political peace in Haiti is of interest to Dominicans
> because turmoil only increases the immigration of indigent Haitians
> seeking survival.
> Earlier, on a television interview with Peggy Cabral, President-elect
> Aristide announced he was open to talks with the opposition.
> Aristide is slated to be sworn in as president of Haiti on 7 February.
> During his first government he was openly antagonistic against the
> Dominican Republic in Haiti and at international forums.
>