15873: Nadal" Re: Lavalas is panicking !!! It's time to pack... and give a chance to Haiti.Bye bye Lavalas !Farewell ! (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Olivier Nadal <o_nadal@bellsouth.net>

BBC Monitoring - June 10, 2003


Interim FL leader says US pressure to end political crisis is not new

Text of report by Haitian Metropole radio on 10 June

The interim leader of the Lavalas Family [FL; the ruling party], Jonas
Petit, has said that the current government has given enough proof of good
will in the implementation of OAS Resolution 822. He thinks that the
opposition and civil society should also play their part. Petit, who was a
guest of Radio Metropole this morning, spoke as follows:

[Petit - recording] The statement made by [US] Secretary of State [Colin]
Powell is only one statement out of 34 statements. As you know, the OAS is
composed of 34 different nations and the United States is one of them. I do
not see why we should lend such great importance to something said by the
representative of only one country out of 34 member countries.

[Journalist Rotchild Francois, Jr] But you also know what the Americans
represent in the world today. It is the US hyperpower!

[Petit] I believe that as an intellectual and combatant for a balanced
society, a global balanced society, we should fight for the existence of
institutions. Otherwise, they could make all the institutions disappear and
leave the world to the United States.

[Francois] But I think we need to be realistic, because we have seen what
happened in the case of Iraq and how all the countries that were fighting
the Americans were aligned afterwards. Today, the Lavalas regime is on the
Americans' radar screen. Are you going to implement the key points of
Resolution 822 before September so that you can avoid having problems with
Washington?

[Petit] I do not think that this is the first time that Haiti has been on
the radar screen of the superpowers. There is not much that the FL can do if
somebody wants to continue to make a martyr out of the country as he [not
further identified] has been doing for a long time now. All that the FL can
do is to encourage all its partners inside the country to behave like
Haitians and to put Haiti's interest first before taking individual
interests into account. [Words indistinct] But the FL will continue to
fulfil its duties as it has been doing up to now with the few resources that
it has in order to try to get out of this crisis and especially to manage
the country in order to give some satisfaction to the population.

[Francois] Has Powell's statement caused the Lavalas regime to think things
over now?

[Petit] I do not know if, as a journalist, you will remember that those
statements are not new. This is not the first time that the US government
has made that kind of statement. I think that we should continue to live
with this situation while being efficient in what we do in terms of managing
the country. And that is what the Haitian government is doing.

- - - - -

Communication minister criticizes US "pressure", "hegemony"

Text of report by Haitian Metropole radio on 10 June
The Haitian government thinks that [US] Secretary of State [Colin] Powell is
just putting pressure on Haiti. Communication Minister Lilas Desquiron
thinks that Powell is seeking to influence the other member states [of the
OAS] regarding the formula that should be used to get Haiti out of the
impasse. Desquiron thinks that the Haitian government has already taken
concrete action to honour the commitments made in [OAS] Resolution 822. She
does not share the points of view of the US secretary of state. Desquiron
spoke as follows:

[Desquiron - recording] I think that we can say that the US government is
just putting pressure on the other members of the OAS. Right from the start
of the meeting, Powell warned the OAS members that the OAS will have to
re-evaluate its role if, by September, the OAS does not manage to get the
Haitian government to form a CEP [Provisional Electoral Council] in order to
hold elections.

So, it is just pressure, because we all know that the government took all
the necessary measures and made all the necessary concessions so that it
could move towards a way out of the crisis. But they never exert pressure on
the opposition so it may fulfil that one requirement, which is to send its
representative to the CEP.

[Journalist Rotchild Francois, Jr] So, you are speaking of pressure. But I
suppose you know the weight that the United States represents in the world
today, do you not?

[Desquiron] Of course, of course. But that is what is called: We are living
in full US hegemony. And those people do not conceal it. While they want to
install democracy everywhere in the world, they do not hesitate to use their
power to influence a hemispheric and sovereign organization that is meeting
to discuss diverse issues. And it is not just Haiti that is concerned.

[Francois ] So, are you going to implement the different points of the
resolution as demanded by the Americans?

[Desquiron] But we have already started to take a direction that abides by
the sense of Resolution 822. We had signed that resolution. We are not just
members of the OAS but founding members of the OAS. It is a resolution that
is leading us to building democracy. And we hope that it will also lead us
to the way out of the crisis.

We gave all the evidence and signals that we wanted the recommendations of
Resolution 822 to be accomplished as far as possible. We do not have a magic
wand. But up to now I think that we have given enough signs of good will. We
have kept our word, and we shall continue to do so.

- - - - -

Cocaine trafficking apparently becomes "legal activity" in South

Excerpt from recorded report by Les Cayes correspondent Rameau Rigobert;
broadcast in progress by Haitian Signal FM radio on 10 June

[Rigobert - recording, in progress] - within the framework of investigations
the police are carrying out about a shipment of cocaine that a boat
scattered over several points in the sea in the Department of the South last
week. According to a police source, the Office to Control Drug Trafficking,
BLTS, investigators had a hard time getting information and arresting the
suspects, because the judicial authorities in Les Cayes did not wish to
cooperate. [Passage omitted]

Since last week, cocaine trafficking seems to have become a legal activity
in the Department of the South because several nice cars with tinted
windscreens and windows and cars with official plates are moving around in
the region with the purpose of buying cocaine.

For the time being, journalists in Les Cayes cannot meet the public
prosecutor, lawyer Fredeck Lemy [phonetic]. By the way, continuing rumours
in the city say that the ministry will decide to transfer him to another
jurisdiction.

- - - - -