8669: Haiti: Friction between OAS leader Gaviria and Lavalas reported (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

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


Haiti: Friction between OAS leader Gaviria and Lavalas reported
BBC Monitoring Service - United Kingdom; Jul 12, 2001


Text of report by Haitian Metropole radio on 12 July

OAS Secretary-General Cesar Gaviria will arrive in Port-au-Prince this
morning. The members of the Civil Society Initiative Group [GISC] held a
preparatory meeting with the Democratic Convergence yesterday. The GISC also
met the delegates of the Lavalas Family [FL] last night. They wanted to lay
the groundwork for making progress in the negotiations on setting up the new
CEP [Provisional Electoral Council]. It appears that this new round of
discussions will be difficult, because the OAS secretary general will find
it tough going with Lavalas. Jean Numa Goudou reports the following:

[Goudou - recording] The story is that things went poorly between Gaviria
and Lavalas at a certain point in the discussions. Upheavals, objections and
arguments took place at times. In addition, Gaviria was obliged to leave
Port-au-Prince on the Sunday, two days before the talks broke off on Tuesday
3 July. He then left his assistant, [Luigi] Einaudi, who is more accustomed
to the protagonists, to continue the discussions. For this 13th mission,
Einaudi is not able to come for family reasons. And Gaviria, who will be the
only one to lead the discussions, is now blacklisted by Lavalas. Contested
Senator Gerard Gilles, who is a member of the negotiating committee for the
Lavalas Family, is not at all polite to Gaviria this time round.

[Gilles] Cesar Gaviria has a Latin disposition, a nervous disposition and we
hope that this time he will be less brusque in the management of the
negotiations so that there may be a positive outcome for Haiti.

[Goudou] And yet, it was not so long ago that Gaviria produced the
admiration of the party in power, that is, the Lavalas Family. But then it
was the Convergence that was being critical. During the 12th mission of the
OAS, although the Convergence did not really applaud Gaviria, it
nevertheless said that it was extremely satisfied. Paul Denis then said the
following:

[Denis] In fact, the OAS showed the interest especially to listen to what we
had to say and to understand our position. We can say that it is the first
time we had the opportunity to express ourselves in such a profound and open
way before an OAS delegation.

[Goudou] That is the state of mind of the negotiators on both sides just a
few hours before the resumption of the Montana [Hotel] negotiations, which
stumbled over the question of the mission to be given to the new CEP.

Source: Radio Metropole, Port-au-Prince, in French 1145 gmt 12 Jul 01

/BBC Monitoring/ © BBC