7765: Haiti: President opens meeting at National Palace (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

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

Haiti: President opens meeting on political situation at National Palace
BBC Monitoring Service - United Kingdom; May 4, 2001

Text of report by Haitian Metropole radio on 3 May

[Announcer] Correspondent Jean Numa Goudou has announced that Aristide made
a very short speech to open the session at the National Palace in the
presence of about 100 people. Most of the Civil Society Initiative Group
[GISC] is present, including spokesmen Pierre Emile Rouzier and Edouard
Paultre. Very few representatives from the political parties are present,
compared to the number of the representatives of civil society. Among the
political leaders who are present, we can see the leader of the Authentic
National Party [PAN], Serge Beaulieu; Max Adam, from the CDSH [Haitian
Social Democratic Centre]; Rockfeller Guerre, from the Union of Patriotic
Democrats [UPD]; Gerard Blot, from the Alternative for Change [AC]; and
other representatives from less well-known political parties.

As announced, the Convergence, the MRN [National Reconstruction Movement],
ESCANP/KOREGA [Effort and Solidarity To Build a National and Popular
Alternative/Grand'Anse Resistance Committee] and PNDPH [National Democratic
Progressive Party of Haiti] are not represented at the meeting.

President Aristide made a short speech. He asked the Archbishop of
Port-au-Prince to ask God's grace upon the participants so that they may
help find a solution to the crisis.

[Aristide - recording, in progress] - to ask the Spirit of God, the God of
love, the God of peace, so that the light may guide us throughout this
meeting, in which we are seeking the solution, the solution for all. Then we
shall ask the press, to whom we give our best wishes on this International
Press Day, to let us work. At the end of the meeting, the journalists will
be able to ask questions and to gather the fruits of that meeting. [End of
recording]

[Goudou] That was the essence of the short speech. Following that speech,
the people in charge politely asked us to leave. We could see Prime Minister
Jean-Marie Cherestal, Archbishop Serge Miot of Port-au-Prince, Culture
Minister Guy Paul and other members of the government and members of the
presidential office. The meeting is now in session.

[Announcer] How long will the meeting last?

[Goudou] We do not know much about that. The people in charge are not able
to tell us when the meeting will end. They asked us to go for a walk. They
took our phone numbers so that they can call us and let us know when the
meeting will end. It is only now that they are going to prepare an agenda
for the meeting. Nothing is set yet.

Source: Radio Metropole, Port-au-Prince, in French 1145 gmt 3 May 01

/BBC Monitoring/ © BBC.