19120: (Craig) NYT Article: Kerry Assails Bush on Haiti (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Dan Craig <hoosier@att.net>

Kerry Assails Bush on Haiti
February 24, 2004
By KIRK SEMPLE

(excerpt)

Senator John Kerry blamed the Bush administration today for
helping foster the political instability in Haiti that has
given rise to the armed insurgency that now controls nearly
half of the country and threatens to overthrow the
government of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.

"I think the administration has missed a lot of
opportunities, in fact, has exacerbated the situation over
the last two years with its cutoff of humanitarian
assistance and its attitude towards the Aristide
administration," Mr. Kerry said. "So they sort of created
the environment within which the insurgency could grow and
take root, and now they're trying to manage it, I think."

Senator Kerry, Democrat of Massachusetts, made his comments
during a wide-ranging discussion today with editors and
reporters of The New York Times in advance of next
Tuesday's New York presidential primary.

He said that if he were president, he would be pressing
Haitian rebels to back off their goal of toppling Mr.
Aristide, perhaps by threatening the deployment of an
international peacekeeping force.

"I think you've got to be real and threatening," he said.
His message to the rebels, he said, would be: "You're not
going to take over, you're not kicking him out, this
democracy is going to be sustained, we're willing to put in
a new government, new prime minister, we're willing to work
with you, but you're not going to succeed in your goal of
exiling" Mr. Aristide. "And unless that's clear, you can't
necessarily stop it in its tracks."

On Monday, political opposition leaders in Port-au-Prince
requested 24 hours to mull over a peace plan presented by
the Bush administration and its allies.

Though Mr. Kerry acknowledged that he did not fully know
the diplomatic strategy of the Bush administration to deal
with Haiti's crisis, he speculated that a purposefully
timid approach on the part of the Bush administration -
"because they hate Aristide" - could be allowing the rebels
to move forward with their uprising.

"They could be encouraging, not really putting the hammer
down on these people to stop what they're doing," he said.


http://www.nytimes.com/2004/02/24/politics/campaign/24CND-KERR.html?ex=1078652081&ei=1&en=5e0fd369701c39cc
Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company