19152: Sajousp: NYTimes.com Article: Aristide’s Foes Rule Out Plan to Share Power (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: sajousp@aol.com


Aristide’s Foes Rule Out Plan to Share Power

February 25, 2004
 By CHRISTOPHER MARQUIS


WASHINGTON, Feb. 24 - Leaders of the Haitian opposition
rejected an American-drafted proposal for a power-sharing
arrangement with President Jean-Bertrand Aristide on
Tuesday, increasing pressure on the Bush administration to
send security forces to stabilize the country.

"There will be no more delays; our answer remains the
same," Maurice Lafortune, head of the Haitian Chamber of
Commerce, told The Associated Press. "Aristide must
resign."

The action surprised Bush administration officials, who had
drafted the power-sharing plan and seemed confident of
their ability to deliver opposition support. But they
secured the agreement only of President Aristide, whom they
have accused of antidemocratic behavior.

The decision came despite lengthy debates and frequent
phone calls from American officials, capped by an appeal -
and a 24-hour extension - from Secretary of State Colin L.
Powell, via conference call. The plan would have
established a neutral government acceptable to all sides
but would have left Mr. Aristide in office until his term
ends in 2006.

Administration officials received the news shortly before a
5 p.m. deadline on Tuesday. They said they were determined
to let diplomacy run its course and played down the
possibility of sending in a multinational force. Canada and
France have offered to send police officers to Haiti, but
only in the context of a political settlement.

"People are still banking on not having to do that," one
administration official said. "There are a bunch of other
options out there." But he did not elaborate.

Canada's foreign minister, Bill Graham, said that the
opposition were drafting a statement to send overnight to
Mr. Powell, Reuters reported.

The State Department's point man for Haiti, Roger F.
Noriega, faced sharp questioning in a closed session on
Capitol Hill on Tuesday, as several senators accused the
Bush administration of dithering in the face of a growing
crisis, Congressional officials said.

"I think the U.S. hands-off policy is abdicating its
responsibility," said Senator Bill Nelson, a Florida
Democrat, after the session. "We're dealing with lives,
here and now."

He and Bob Graham, Florida's other Democratic senator, have
warned administration officials repeatedly of the potential
for an exodus of Haitians to their shores.

Senator Mike DeWine, an Ohio Republican who has visited
Haiti more than a dozen times in recent years, expressed
disappointment at the opposition's rejection and said the
United States should prepare to use force.

"If the situation continues to deteriorate, there's really
no choice but to put together a military force to go into
Haiti to stabilize the situation," Mr. DeWine said. "We
have 20,000 U.S. citizens living in Haiti. You have the
potential for a blood bath."

Administration officials were in contact on Tuesday with
diplomats from France and Canada, officials said. Dominique
de Villepin, the French foreign minister, has asked the
European Union to approve funds for a peacekeeping force
for Haiti, diplomats said, and France has invited
representatives of Mr. Aristide and the opposition to come
to Paris for talks.

Richard A. Boucher, the spokesman for the State Department,
countered criticism that the administration had acted too
casually on Haiti by saying the United States had been "at
the forefront" of diplomacy.

"The point is to try to separate the politics from the
violence and to try to move the political part of this
forward in a way that we think can meet the needs both of
the government and the opposition forces to have a
meaningful role in government," he said.

But with the antigovernment uprising entering its third
week and rebels setting their sights on the capital,
Port-au-Prince, lawmakers warned that fighting could
intensify.

Representative Kendrick B. Meek, a Florida Democrat, said
the United States should intervene immediately. "The Bush
administration has made it clear that it will wait until a
number of Haitians are face down in the streets, and in the
waters around Haiti, before they will act," he said.

Senator Christopher J. Dodd, a Connecticut Democrat with
long experience in the region, said a force of even 1,000
would be be enough to help restore order. "It is too late
for diplomacy alone to turn the tide there," he said.

Mr. Graham said the administration had done very little to
ward off a possible flood of refugees. Thousands of
Haitians took to the sea, often in flimsy boats, bound for
Florida during the years of military rule after Mr.
Aristide's ouster in 1991.

"From what I can tell, there is no Plan B," Mr. Graham said
in remarks on the Senate floor on Tuesday. "There has been
little or no contact between federal agencies and state and
local authorities - our first responders - to prepare for
the potential influx of refugees."

Mr. Graham noted that the Pentagon was "understandably
hesitant" to send Haitian refugees to its naval base at
Guantánamo Bay, Cuba; that is where nearly 600 suspected
terrorists are being held.

"If we wait for a political settlement, we will be
tolerating more scores of people being killed and more
deaths due to the meager food supply and lack of adequate
health services," he said. "If we continue to wait for a
political solution, the country will be controlled by armed
gangs, drug dealers and thugs."

Human Rights Watch urged the international community to
send a peacekeeping force to Haiti to avert violent
retaliation against supporters of President Aristide in the
capital. "Given the horrendous human rights records of some
of the leaders of the armed rebellion, we are extremely
concerned," said Joanne Mariner, deputy director of the
group's Americas Division.

The United Nations World Food Program, which lost a
warehouse of food to looters in Cap Haitien on Sunday,
warned that food shortages were inevitable if the situation
continued to deteriorate. The program now supplies 373,000
Haitians.

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/02/25/international/americas/25HAIT.html?ex=1078686113&ei=1&en=bffa1f1e36c358ec


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