14035: (Arthur) Council on Hemispheric Affairs press release (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Tttnhm@aol.com

Council on Hemispheric Affairs: Memorandum to the Press

For Immediate Release: December 4, 2002

Haiti – A Country with Powerful Enemies and a Deficit of Heroes

·        Three weeks of non-stop street violence could be the final straw
before the Götterdämmerung of Haitian society

·        As the situation in Haiti deteriorates daily, political parties
fight for supremacy rather than striving to work together to end the
suffering of the people

·        Backed into a corner by the hard-line attitude of U.S. ideologues
and the Washington-dominated international lending agencies, Aristide’s
integrity, popularity and political base are crumbling

·        Having mostly achieved its goal of discrediting and isolating the
Aristide administration, U.S. policy makers should immediately call off the
economic embargo against Haiti and personal vendetta against Aristide before
it inflicts irreparable damage, while adding even more innocent lives and
human misery to the toll being exacted by Washington’s misguided strategy.
This U.S. policy will only result in the predictable outcome of thousands of
Haitians fleeing the country in unseaworthy vessels, in search of  the
Florida coast

·        The “option zero” game being played by the Democratic Convergence
should be decisively denounced by Washington as obstructionist and intolerable

·        Fair and credible elections are necessary, but Washington should not
continue to try in every way to discredit Aristide’s rule following his
agreement to all U.S. terms

·        Quelling the political violence that is engulfing the country
requires the cooperation of all parties and governments, as the country
prepares for forthcoming elections.



The Council on Hemispheric Affairs, founded in 1975, is an independent,
non-profit, non-partisan, tax-exempt research and information organization.
It has been described on the Senate floor as being “one of the nation’s most
respected bodies of scholars and policy makers.” For more information, please
see our web page at www.coha.org; or contact our Washington offices by phone
(202) 216-9261, fax (202) 223-6035, or email coha@coha.org.



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