15194: Hermantin: Miami Herald- Diplomats seek accord on elections in Haiti (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: leonie hermantin <lhermantin@hotmail.com>

Posted on Thu, Mar. 20, 2003

Diplomats seek accord on elections in Haiti
Mission's goal: end of violence
BY MICHAEL NORTON
Associated Press

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti -- Senior diplomats from international organizations
arrived Wednesday to persuade President Jean-Bertrand Aristide and his
opponents to agree to elections and resolve Haiti's 3-year-old crisis.

''We want elections! Give them to us!'' more than 100 Aristide supporters
chanted at the airport.

The visitors will emphasize ''the international community's firm conviction
that all sides in Haiti must honor their obligations . . . to end the
climate of violence and insecurity,'' Caribbean Community representative
Julian Hunte said.

Hunte, St. Lucia's foreign minister, is leading the delegation along with
Luigi Einaudi, the assistant secretary general of the Organization of
American States, who is on his 25th trip here since Aristide's party swept
flawed legislative elections in May 2000.

Haiti's politicians have been wrangling ever since, as the country has
fallen deeper into misery, compounded by the freezing of $500 million in
international aid.

The delegation, including about 20 officials of the United States, Canada,
Latin America, the European Union and international financial institutions,
was scheduled to meet Aristide, opposition leaders and diplomats Wednesday.
Today, the visitors are scheduled to meet civil society leaders and Papal
Nuncio Luigi Bonazzi.

Hunte said they would urge the government ''to take immediate measures to
improve the security situation,'' and would encourage all sides to form an
electoral council. Last month, Aristide appointed seven members of a
nine-member council to organize elections. But only two are willing to take
office. Five refuse to be sworn in until the government disarms its
partisans, and two opposition blocs refuse to designate members until
Aristide resigns.

Both sides have proved intransigent, according to the United States, which
sent 20,000 troops in 1994 to end a military dictatorship that had ousted
Aristide.

''Aristide has yet to take the necessary steps to lead Haiti toward free and
fair elections,'' Thomas A. Shannon, U.S. deputy assistant secretary of
state for Western Hemisphere affairs, said March 12. He also criticized the
opposition, saying, ``We cannot and will not support any effort to remove
President Aristide through violent confrontation.''







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