12484: NYTimes.com Article: Haiti Joins Caribbean Community (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Dan Craig <dgcraig@att.net>

Haiti Joins Caribbean Community
July 5, 2002
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 11:17 p.m. ET

GEORGETOWN, Guyana (AP)-- Haiti was admitted as the 15th
member of the Caribbean Community on Friday as the trading
bloc wrapped up a summit that was marred early on by
violence.

Haiti's move into the trade group was aimed at bolstering
opportunities for regional manufacturers, but some critics
questioned how much trade can be done with the poverty
stricken Caribbean island.

Haiti, with a population of eight million, has an average
per capita income of just $400 a year. That compares with
members like the Bahamas and Barbados, where it's nearly
$10,000. The community's 14 other member states have a
population of 6.5 million.

Some officials tried to reassure others who feared giving
membership to the Caribbean's most politically and
economically troubled nation.

St. Lucian Foreign Minister Julian Hunte, the community's
point man on Haiti, said Haiti's membership was long
overdue but cautioned the country that suffered nearly 200
years of dictatorship has a long way to go since democracy
and the rule of law have never been entrenched.

"I have been saying all along that people should
understand that Haiti has 8 million people and their buying
power would be enormous both now and in the future. We
should take advantage of this," Secretary-General Edwin
Carrington told The Associated Press this week.

President Jean-Bertrand Aristide's government would need
help dealing with precarious national security and in
collecting thousands of illegal weapons in the hands of
government and opposition partisans, he said.

As the three-day summit was opening Wednesday, violence
broke out in Georgetown during a confrontation between
police and opposition protesters. Police fired on a group
that broke away from a march involving thousands and forced
open a gate to enter the yard of the president's office.

Two died and at least 12 were treated for gunshot wounds,
hospital officials said. No violence was reported Thursday
or Friday.

Earlier Friday, 13 presidents and prime ministers at the
summit asked the region's development bank to raise funds
to help finance a new regional high court to replace
Britain's Privy Council. The court is expected to open next
year.

The Privy Council has long been the court of last resort
for several former British Caribbean islands. But some
Caribbean governments have complained that the council has
tried to cripple their efforts to enforce the death
penalty, which is illegal in Britain.

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-Caribbean-Summit.html?ex=1026962145&ei=1&en=1b4558ae5353cc96
Copyright 2002 The New York Times Company