18869: Esser: Secretary Colin L. Powell on Haiti (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: D. Esser torx@joimail.com

U.S. Department of State.
Interview on Sam Donaldson Live In America

Secretary Colin L. Powell
Washington, DC
February 19, 2004

(9:08 a.m. EST)

MR. DONALDSON: The Secretary of State, Secretary Colin Powell.
Welcome, Mr. Secretary.

SECRETARY POWELL: Hello, Sam. How are you?

MR. DONALDSON: I'm fine. Thank you for joining us. Let's get started.
The rebellion in Haiti continues, seems to be getting worse. You said
this week we will not permit thugs and murderers to take over that
government, and yet you've also said we won't send troops. So how are
we going to stop them?

SECRETARY POWELL: Well, we're working with the international
community, and I think we've got a solid consensus with the
Organization of American States, the United Nations, France, Canada,
a number of other countries. And we're doing what we can to put
together a political plan that we will offer to President Aristide
and also to the political opposition.
And I think if they will both accept this plan and start executing on
it, we might find a way through this crisis politically.

It is a difficult situation in Haiti right now. It's a little hard to
tell from day to day which cities are in whose hands.

In many cases, it's just a few thugs that are dominating a particular
town or city, and so what we have to try to do now is stand with
President Aristide -- he is the elected President of Haiti -- and do
what we can to help him.

We have also said that if we find a political solution, then the
international community is prepared to help police that solution with
additional international police officers going to Haiti.

MR. DONALDSON: Would that plan include the possibility that President
Aristide might step down?

SECRETARY POWELL: That's not the -- that's not an element of the plan
because under the constitution, he is the President for some time to
come yet. You know, if an agreement is reached that moves that in
another direction, that's fine. But right now, he has no intention to
step down, and since he is the elected leader of Haiti, we should not
be putting forward a plan that would require him to step down.

MR. DONALDSON: But if it moves in that direction, to quote you back
at yourself, "that's fine," sounds like that that's a possibility.

SECRETARY POWELL: No, it's not a possibility yet. That is up to
President Aristide and the political opposition. We are not
suggesting that. We are not encouraging that. We are not predicting
that. He is the elected President of Haiti, and we cannot allow these
thugs to come out of the hills, or even an opposition to simply rise
up and say, "We want you to leave," in an undemocratic,
non-constitutional manner.

We want this situation to play out in a constitutional manner, and
right now President Aristide is the elected President of Haiti and
that's what we're standing behind.

MR. DONALDSON: Well, you may have seen The Washington Post editorial,
which says this policy of talking tough but being unable to put force
behind it is back peddling, and to quote the editorial, "an
inexcusable abdication of our responsibility."

SECRETARY POWELL: It is not an abdication of our responsibility. We
have done a lot in Haiti over the last ten years to include sending
troops in back in 1994. At the moment, in conversations with all of
the other nations that have an interest in this, both here in our
hemisphere, as well as the Francophonie nations, as they are called,
led by France and including Senegal and others, and the United
Nations, it is our judgment right now that the solution is not to
impose a military solution or a police solution, but to continue to
find a political solution. And that's what we are trying to do and
that's what we are working on.

[...]