15208: (Chamberlain) Haiti-Crisis (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

   By MICHAEL NORTON

   PORT-AU-PRINCE, March 20 (AP) -- International diplomats met with
Haiti's government Thursday to demand officials take steps toward
protecting civil liberties, reforming Haiti's police force and disarming
partisans of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.
   The conditions are part of a resolution from the Organization of
American States to establish peaceful conditions for new elections, said
OAS Assistant Secretary-General Luigi Einaudi.
   Einaudi was leading a delegation of about 20 officials from the United
States, Canada, Latin America, the European Union and international
financial institutions on a mission to help resolve Haiti's political
stalemate.
   Haiti has been in crisis since flawed 2000 legislative elections swept
by Aristide's Lavalas Family party. International donors froze $500 million
in aid because of irregularities in the vote.
   Street gangs claiming links to Aristide's party have attacked
demonstrators, journalists and opposition politicians. At least four people
have been killed since mid-November, and more than 350 people have been
injured -- most of them opposition supporters.
   Aristide has promised new legislative elections this year, but the
opposition has refused to agree to the vote without security guarantees.
Aristide said he hopes to persuade the opposition to participate.
   Last month, Aristide established a nine-member electoral council to
organize elections, but civil leaders have refused to participate until
Aristide's partisans are disarmed. The opposition says it won't name its
delegates until Aristide resigns. Aristide has refused to step down before
his term ends in 2006.
   The delegation, which arrived Wednesday, gave Haiti until March 30 to
set up an electoral council, Einaudi said, adding that the OAS permanent
council would meet April 2 to discuss the situation further.
   Einaudi said if the government does not show signs within the next 10
days that it is trying to meet the conditions "we will be in a different
ball game," suggesting more action could be taken against Haiti.
   The government, however, said it was doing its best.
   "The (March 30) deadline is a wish, not an ultimatum," government
spokesman Mario Dupuy said. "If the opposition stopped destabilizing the
government and the international community released its aid, we would
implement (the resolution) more rapidly."
   As the delegation met with officials, police fired tear gas and used
nightsticks to disperse about 300 anti-government demonstrators near the
National Palace.
   Four journalists said on independent radio station Vision 2000 that
police had kicked and hit them after they presented their media credentials
at the protest. One of the reporters was interviewed while in the hospital
with broken ribs.
   "The government is more repressive than ever," opposition politician
Gerard Pierre-Charles said.
   Police spokesman Jean-Dady Simeon said the demonstration was broken up
because it had followed a route that was not approved, and that no
journalists had been manhandled by police.