19272: (Chamberlain) As U.S. waits, France seizes initiative on Haiti (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

     By Mark John

    PARIS, Feb 26 (Reuters) - While Washington delays action, France has
seized the initiative in efforts to restore order in Haiti by leading calls
for international peacekeepers to be sent there right away.
     The ex-colonial power says it does not want to tread on the United
States' toes in its backyard. Some analysts in Paris suggest its
involvement in resolving Haiti's political crisis could even do President
George W. Bush a big favour.
     "Washington has other priorities -- Iraq or Afghanistan," said
Jean-Jacques Kourliandsky, of the Paris-based Institute of International
and Strategic Relations of Bush's rejection so far of calls for immediate
intervention.
     "This could be a way of helping relations between Paris and
Washington...I think that is the aim of French diplomacy here," he said of
ties damaged in the bitter diplomatic row triggered by France's opposition
to the Iraq war.
     Bush this week rejected Haiti President Jean-Bertrand Aristide's plea
for help to quell an armed three-week rebellion, saying a political
settlement must come first.
     But as rebels advanced towards the capital Port-au-Prince, France
proposed on Wednesday that a civilian peace force be sent immediately and
demanded Aristide step down to make way for a transitional government of
national unity.
     Emphasising the role of neighbouring countries in resolving the
crisis, Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin nonetheless renewed
invitations to government and opposition officials to come from Haiti to
Paris to discuss the crisis on Friday.
     The statement took Washington by surprise. U.S. Secretary of State
Colin Powell said he had heard nothing of a force going in immediately in
his contacts with Villepin.
     "The French are seeking to encourage the Americans to go the next
step," said Regis Debray, head of a government-appointed group on relations
between France and Haiti.
     "But I do not see any friction between the two. There could and should
be coordination in the region...There is no question of challenging the
United States in a region so near to them and where they have so many
interests," he added.
     The United States wants to avoid a repeat of a 1990s influx of
refugees from Haiti during an earlier bout of chaos. Its new woes have
already entered the presidential race with Democratic front-runner John
Kerry blaming Bush's "neglect" for the crisis.
     But Debray said Washington was reticent about calling for the removal
of Aristide, whom it helped back to power in 1994 after a military coup.
Paris harbours no such loyalties and has blamed Aristide for Haiti's
troubles.
     Analysts say Haiti's proximity to French Antilles islands such as
Guadeloupe, and the French spoken by its educated elite, are also reasons
why Paris can play a role in ending the crisis.
     Ties between France and Haiti have been tested by Aristide's repeated
demands that Paris pay $22 billion in compensation for the century of
slavery that made it France's wealthiest colony before independence in 1804
-- demands that Paris rejects.
     But Kourliandsky said the brutality of the colonial era and the slave
rebellion that secured independence by defeating the French army were now
forgotten by most French and Haitians.