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7458: U.S., OAS Appeal for Calm in Haiti (fwd)
From: nozier <nozier@tradewind.net>
Wednesday, March 21, 2001 | Print this story
U.S., OAS Appeal for Calm in Haiti
WASHINGTON--The United States has issued an appeal for calm in Haiti
amid increasing violence between opposition activists demanding new
elections and supporters of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. In a
statement late on Tuesday, the State Department urged Haiti's
political leaders and their supporters to refrain from making
inflammatory remarks and provoking more violence. "We call on the
Government of Haiti and its security forces to respect and protect
the democratic and constitutional right of all citizens to assemble
peacefully and express their political opinions," State Department
spokesman Richard Boucher said in the written statement. A similar
appeal from the Organization of American States condemned the current
wave of violence in Haiti. In a separate statement, the OAS echoed the
State Department's plea for all
parties to refrain from actions and statements that could
exacerbate tension and jeopardize efforts to find a peaceful
solution to the crisis. The renewed violence began March 14 when
opposition protesters clashed with supporters of Aristide's government
in front of the OAS office in Petionville, a suburb on the edge of
the Haitian
capital. Haitian riot police armed with machine guns used tear gas to
break up the scuffles as the fighting spilled into a nearby public
plaza. Opposition activists were seeking OAS support for new
legislative and presidential elections. The protest came as Foreign
Affairs Minister Antonio Joseph met OAS officials in Washington to
discuss a proposed commission to monitor human rights in Haiti and
possibly observe an election
runoff for the parliamentary vote.The State Department said on Tuesday
the protests had turned increasingly violent in recent days with
incidents of tire burning, rock throwing, roadblocks, and shootings that
have resulted in several reported casualties. Haiti's political
opposition has sharply criticized the administration of Aristide, the
Caribbean nation's first freely elected president, after it refused to
reconsider results from a parliamentary election last May. Aristide,
a former priest, rose to power a decade ago in a grass-roots movement
but was ousted seven months into his term by a military coup. A
U.S.-led military invasion restored him to power three years later.