18886: (Hermantin)Miami-Herald-Powell: Aristide must keep his job (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: leonie hermantin <lhermantin@hotmail.com>

Posted on Fri, Feb. 20, 2004

U.S.-HAITI RELATIONS


Powell: Aristide must keep his job

BY DREW BROWN AND WARREN P. STROBEL

dbrown@krwashington.com


WASHINGTON - Secretary of State Colin Powell Thursday said the United States
and its allies were seeking an end the crisis in Haiti while leaving
President Jean-Bertrand Aristide in power until his term ended in 2006.

''The Haitians have to come up with a political solution,'' he said.

Powell helped broker an agreement with former President Jimmy Carter in 1994
that returned Aristide to office after he had been ousted in a coup. Powell
said he was working ''to put more urgency and energy'' behind a Caribbean
Community peace plan and a dialogue between Aristide and the rebels.

''We are not interested in an outcome that would force him from power,'' he
said.

Powell said the dispatch of a team of U.S. military experts to Haiti was
''merely prudent survey work'' to ensure the U.S. Embassy's security, ''but
it does not presage a departure or an arrival'' of U.S. personnel in the
nation.

'You read criticism: `The United States should just do something,' '' he
said, pounding his fist on his desk for emphasis. ``But most articles stop
short of saying send in the troops . . . because we've been there before.''

Only France, Haiti's former colonial ruler, has expressed interest in
intervening, and only under U.N. auspices.

Powell portrayed the international community as united on seeking a
diplomatic and political solution. He said Haiti would be offered
international police or military forces to help stabilize the situation
after a political agreement between Aristide and the opposition had been
reached.

Offering a diplomatic carrot, Powell said the world ''is rather poised'' to
offer such help if the Haitians can overcome their differences.

U.S. assistance to train Haiti's police is ''something we would consider''
after an agreement, he said.

''This is the time for the opposition to recognize that whatever their
legitimate complaints may or may not be, they will not be dealt with if they
fall in league or get under the same umbrella with thugs, murderers,'' he
said.

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