18171: (Hermantin)Miami-Herald-Caribbean alliance gets tough on Aristide (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: leonie hermantin <lhermantin@hotmail.com>

Posted on Sat, Jan. 31, 2004

HAITI
Caribbean alliance gets tough on Aristide
The Caribbean Community may impose sanctions on Haiti unless President
Jean-Bertrand Aristide takes steps to defuse the violent crisis.
BY JACQUELINE CHARLES
jcharles@herald.com

KINGSTON, Jamaica - Under pressure from Washington and Haiti's escalating
crisis, the Caribbean Community has abandoned its hands-off attitude toward
its newest member nation and moved toward a harder-hitting position that may
include sanctions.

''They were dealing too gently'' with President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, said
Orlando Marville, a retired Barbadian diplomat who headed the Organization
of American States electoral observer mission in Haiti during disputed 2000
elections. ``There has to be a lot more coercion.''

Today, several CARICOM prime ministers will meet with Aristide to push him
to follow recommendations they hope will halt violent demonstrations that
have left at least 50 dead in the past few months.

JOINT STRATEGY

On Friday, diplomats from the Organization of American States, Canada, the
United States and the European Union spent three hours with the prime
ministers discussing how to proceed. Their aim: to come up with timelines
and actions that Aristide can implement as a sign of good faith with his
opponents and the international community in order to break the political
deadlock.

CARICOM leaders held a similar meeting last week with 14 members of
Aristide's opposition at which they developed the recommendations, mostly
designed to clear the way for elections now boycotted by the opposition. The
meeting was unprecedented. Until then, CARICOM had dealt solely with
Aristide, whose nation became a full member of the regional bloc in 2002.

CARICOM's shift began after pro-Aristide thugs attacked opposition students
at the State University of Haiti in Port-au-Prince on Dec. 5, sparking the
ongoing streak of protests demanding Aristide's resignation.

But CARICOM also was nudged into action after a Dec. 15 White House meeting
between President George W. Bush and Patrick Manning, prime minister of
Trinidad and Tobago, at which Bush reportedly expressed concern about the
Haiti crisis.

''It galvanized CARICOM, which had been thinking for quite some time about
Haiti and concerned about what was taking place,'' said Colin Granderson, an
assistant secretary general with the regional bloc and a native of Trinidad
and Tobago.

Few are under the illusion that CARICOM alone can solve the Haitian crisis.
But there's hope that with Haiti's closest neighbors involved, Aristide and
opposition groups will be pressured to reach a negotiated solution.

CARICOM's policy shift follows several unsuccessful diplomatic attempts by
the Organization of American States to break the political impasse in the
impoverished nation of 7.5 million people.

The OAS has a permanent mission in Haiti and Deputy Secretary General Luigi
Einaudi has headed 25 missions to Haiti in the past three years. The OAS
even tapped a respected career U.S. diplomat, Terence Todman, in August to
try to get elections off the ground, but he ended the mission two months
later without any progress.

But now Haiti's neighbors are taking a tougher stance, with Jamaican Prime
Minister and CARICOM Chairman P.J. Patterson warning Wednesday that the
regional group could impose sanctions on Haiti unless Aristide takes steps
to defuse the crisis.

''We're making it clear that the consequence of a failure to respond
positively to the proposals we have made would result in our considering
whether Haiti is in compliance with [CARICOM's] Charter for Civil Society,''
Patterson said.

INITIATIVE WELCOMED

CARICOM's get-tough attitude was welcomed by long-time Haiti observers.

''I am pleased that it has changed focus,'' Marville said in a telephone
interview from Barbados, before adding, ``I am not sure they have gone far
enough.''

Anthony Bryan, director of the University of Miami's Caribbean studies
program, said CARICOM had earlier not paid enough attention to Haiti.

''In some ways Haiti is an embarrassment to CARICOM because of . . . the
failure of Haiti to adhere to the basics of democracy,'' Bryan said. ``The
role for CARICOM is precisely one of bringing the parties together.''

Granderson disagrees that CARICOM has ignored the Haiti issue but
acknowledges that the regional bloc has changed its focus by meeting with
Aristide's opposition.

''The Haitian situation is very complex,'' he said. ``The international
community has to continue working as one. That is why we had major players
involved, to have a sense of what is taking place.''

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