7723: Haiti: FL spokesman says Aristide will send party leader to meet Convergence (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Max Blanchet <maxblanchet@worldnet.att.net>

Haiti: FL spokesman says Aristide will send party leader to meet Convergence
BBC Monitoring Service - United Kingdom; Apr 28, 2001

Text of report by Haitian Metropole radio on 27 April

The meeting between the Lavalas Family [FL] and the Democratic Convergence
will take place but without President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. The Lavalas
party has decided to discuss with the opposition the modality of the
resumption of the discussions in the presence of civil society, as the
Convergence wanted. FL spokesman Jonas Petit said, however, that President
Aristide will be represented by the current leader of the party, Yvon
Neptune.

[Petit - recording, in Creole] We thought a lot about the form and content
of the invitation, especially all the tricky parts of it. We finally
resolved them and we told the Convergence that FL will attend and that it is
the national representative who represents the organization who will take
part in that meeting.

[Unidentified reporter] Will President Aristide be there personally?

[Petit] President Aristide was not invited to the meeting. The organization
was invited. Therefore, the organization will be represented by its current
leader, Yvon Neptune.

[Reporter] What is FL expecting from the Convergence?

[Petit] The aim of the meeting was defined by the Convergence. It was to be
a preliminary meeting to set up the agenda required to resume the dialogue.
This agenda will concern the controversy regarding the 21 May elections. We
shall work on that. We shall set up an agenda for discussions.

[Reporter] At the FL level, President Aristide said that he expects a
solution between now and 2 May. With less than a week until 2 May, do you
think it is possible to find a compromise?

[Petit] It is mainly at the national level that President Aristide had set
the idea of reaching a rapid result. Indeed, he said that 2 May [date of the
meeting of the OAS permanent council] would be a pretty interesting date to
do so. We believe that we shall do all that is within our power to reach a
result on that date.

[Reporter] Meanwhile, if the meeting takes place, could you say that the
compromise that everybody is awaiting will be found before 2 May?

[Petit] Well, I believe that if the Convergence clearly expresses their
willingness, we have the possibility to move forward very quickly. You must
not forget that this is not the first time that we shall have meet and had
discussions. Therefore, we have several elements which have accumulated
already and we only need to finalize, improve and adjust them so that we can
reach a political agreement on that date.

[Reporter] What should the profile of the political agreement be, as far as
the Lavalas Family is concerned?

[Petit] We believe that it is a profile that would allow us to resolve the
problems that arose after the 21 May elections, to allow the Convergence,
together with the opposition as a whole, to be comfortable to stand in
future elections, to allow them to gain confidence in the current
Provisional Electoral Council [CEP] and to offer them the chance to take
part in the government of overture, as we have announced before. We believe
that all the elements are already on the negotiating table and are always
available, and we think that an agreement will be possible soon.

Source: Radio Metropole, Port-au-Prince, in French 1145 gmt 27 Apr 01

/BBC Monitoring/ © BBC.

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