a863: BBC: International Republican Institute officials meet Haitian opposition leaders (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Robert Benodin <r.benodin@worldnet.att.net>

International Republican Institute officials meet Haitian opposition leaders
BBC Monitoring Service - United Kingdom; Feb 20, 2002


 [Announcer] High-ranking officials of the International Republican
Institute [IRI] are in Haiti to obtain information about the political
crisis. The delegation led by Professor Georges Fauriol yesterday met
Convergence leaders. The opposition leaders seized the opportunity to
denounce the Lavalas regime and reiterate their support for the OAS
[Organization of American States] resolution on Haiti. The Convergence hopes
to constitute an alternative to the current regime. Serge Gilles and Hubert
De Ronceray said the following at the microphone of Romney Cajuste.
[Gilles - recording, in Creole] The thing is, IRI wanted to be informed
about the country's political and socioeconomic situation. What do we expect
to happen in the next 30 days? Our answer is clear. They had thought that
calm would return to the country after 17 December. On the contrary, we now
have a situation that is marked by suspicious assassinations, abductions and
a lot of other things. So, there has not been any improvement. That means
that all the signs that we have show that the country is heading towards
catastrophe, economic catastrophe and political catastrophe. We also
discussed the country's economic situation. We said that the economy that
exists now in the country is a speculative economy. And we must hurry,
because in general to sustain a speculative economy there has to be
repression, and that only benefits a minority. We need a productive economy.
But as far as they are concerned, their concern is how we see the country's
future in the next 30 days, according to the way things are right now. What
we say is this: since the OAS has given this government an assignment, there
are certain arrangements that the government has to make in order to make it
possible for the negotiations to resume. We said that we have noticed that
no arrangement has been made. So, we are quite pessimistic since the
government has not respected the OAS recommendations.
[De Ronceray] They told us that they have not come to offer solutions and
that they only come to listen to us and see in what direction we want to
move. Certainly, if we show that same capacity of resistance. For, they
acknowledge that during the past two years the Democratic Convergence has
proved its unquestionable capacity to resist the dictatorship. But, on the
other hand, they told us that it is not enough to prove resistance, and that
we should prove that we are an alternative. We told them that we are working
to show that not only can we undress the Lavalas regime, but that we can
also dress up Haiti. They clearly told us that they will not take our place,
but that they will accompany us in terms of construction and the return to
democracy, and in terms of boosting the economy. [End of recording]
Source: Radio Metropole, Port-au-Prince, in French 1145 gmt 19 Feb 02
/BBC Monitoring/ © BBC.