19181: Levy: Sen. Kerry criticizes US Haiti policy (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Mike Levy <mlhaiti@cornernet.com>

Excerpt from the article relating to Haiti:
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February 25, 2004
THE MASSACHUSETTS SENATOR

Kerry Maintains the Administration Is Partly to Blame for the Unrest in
Haiti
By DAVID M. HALBFINGER

HIGHLAND HILLS, Ohio, Feb. 24 ‹ Senator John Kerry accused the Bush
administration on Tuesday of helping foster the political instability in
Haiti that has given rise to the armed rebellion threatening 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 few 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, take root. And now they're trying to
manage it, I think."

He also questioned whether the administration had been playing "a
duplicitous game": publicly encouraging Mr. Aristide but declining to assert
itself in his behalf with the insurgents.

"They hate Aristide," Mr. Kerry said of administration officials at a
morning meeting with editors and reporters of The New York Times, as he
sought endorsements in New York's Democratic presidential primary next week.
He then flew to Ohio, another Super Tuesday state, to campaign near
Youngstown and in this Cleveland suburb.