a1742: BBC: Haiti: French ambassador defends international community's efforts in Haiti (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

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

Haiti: French ambassador defends international community's efforts in Haiti
BBC Monitoring Service - United Kingdom; Apr 20, 2002



The French ambassador has defended the diplomatic corps, which has been
accused by partisans of the Lavalas regime of attempting destabilizing
actions. Yves Gaudeul has stressed that the position of the group of
countries called Friends of Haiti has always been clear and unambiguous
regarding the crisis. The international community supports the reinforcement
of democracy in Haiti.
[Gaudeul - recording] I believe that we, the members of the international
community, have always been very clear and direct in our opinion regarding
events in the country in the last few years. We have been careful to use
diplomatic language lest we might be at all provocative. Moreover, we can
see today that the international community has assumed its responsibility.
So, what we could say is that the aid from the international community, from
France in particular, has not been efficient enough. Maybe we sometimes
supported regimes which we should not have supported. Maybe there was a time
when we should have clearly said that there were things which were
intolerable. It took the Pope's visit for it to be said that something had
to change here. I think that other countries would have done better to have
said that a lot sooner.
I think that today we are engaged in a dialogue which is more sincere and
clearer - less condescending, I hope. I know very well that foreigners are
sometimes somewhat dreaded in this country. The declarations I heard
yesterday remind us of that. I believe we are here not to encourage disorder
but to help establish a lasting order and especially to help establish
conditions for development.
Source: Radio Metropole, Port-au-Prince, in French 1145 gmt 19 Apr 02
/¸ BBC Monitoring
/BBC Monitoring/ © BBC.