18824: loveayiti: France says "Pressure Aristide" (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: love haiti <loveayiti@hotmail.com>

Posted on Thu, Feb. 19, 2004
 Miami Herald

France urges more pressure on Aristide
France is urging the OAS and the Caribbean Community to send delegations to
Haiti in the next few days.
BY STEWART STOGEL
Special to The Herald

NEW YORK - French diplomats Wednesday urged Latin American and Caribbean
governments to send delegations to Haiti to press President Jean-Bertrand
Aristide for his cooperation -- and to deliver an implied threat of
intervention-- in ending a bloody crisis, diplomats in Paris said.
The United Nations Security Council, meanwhile, endorsed efforts by the
Organization of American States and the Caribbean Community to resolve the
crisis but did not discuss sending a peacekeeping mission to Haiti.
TAKING THE LEAD
France took the lead Tuesday in pushing for a solution to Haiti's chaos, which
would include a peacekeeping force. The action came after weeks of fruitless
OAS and CARICOM efforts at mediation and the Bush administration's insistence
that a negotiated settlement precede the deployment of foreign forces.
''What we want to do right now is find a political solution, and then there are
willing nations that would come forward with a police presence at that point to
implement the political agreement that the sides come to,'' State Department
spokesman Richard Boucher said Wednesday.
France is now urging the OAS and CARICOM to send delegations to Haiti in the
next few days to resurrect a dialogue between Aristide and his political
opponents, said a senior advisor to Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin.
IMPLIED THREAT
But the delegations are expected to at least ''unofficially'' be backed with
the threat of military intervention if no progress is made, the advisor added.
Paris wants ''to put more teeth'' in the OAS and Caricom efforts, he said.
A French diplomatic source said the country's ambassador to Haiti met with
Aristide on Tuesday and pressed him to release 56 political prisoners and to
allow the opposition to demonstrate on the streets -- part of his promises to
the CARICOM mediators.
France has long had a special interest in Haiti, once its richest colony in the
New World. About 2,000 French citizens live there.
At least 60 people have been killed in two weeks of attacks by armed gangs and
former soldiers demanding Aristide's resignation. The president has vowed to
serve out his term, which ends in 2006.
A statement approved by the U.N. Security Council urged Aristide and his
opponents ``to restore confidence and dialogue, and overcome their differences
peacefully and democratically through constitutional means.''
But Chilean Ambassador Heraldo Muņoz said there was no discussion of sending in
a U.N. peacekeeping force. ''I think we have to exhaust the political
initiatives,'' he said. ``There is still room for diplomacy.''
FORCE NOT RULED OUT
French Foreign Ministry spokesman Herve Ladsous said Wednesday that Paris ''has
not formally proposed a U.N. force'' but did not rule out the use of force.
''It could be a civilian force, a police force,'' the Associated Press quoted
him as saying. ``There are many different options possible. We are now talking
with our partners to see what they think.''
De Villepin's advisor told The Herald that after a lengthy meeting with his
staff Tuesday, the foreign minister had decided to push the international
community for a peacekeeping force under U.N., OAS or CARICOM auspices.
He said France would be ready to send its troops or police to join the
peacekeeping force, and mentioned Canada and Mexico as two of the countries
that could also be asked to join.
On Wednesday, Mexican Foreign Minister Luis Ernesto Derbez said he had spoken
with foreign ministers of Canada and France about a possible multinational
security force for Haiti, but that his country would offer only humanitarian
aid.


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