19279: Esser: Black U.S. lawmakers use different tactics this time to try to save Aristide (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: D. E s s e r <torx@joimail.com>

Black U.S. lawmakers use different tactics this time to try to save
Aristide
SONYA ROSS, Associated Press Writer

Wednesday, February 25, 2004


The last time democracy fell apart in Haiti, black Democrats launched
a very public campaign to get the Clinton administration to return
Jean-Bertrand Aristide to power.

As Aristide's rule again nears collapse, the same players are
stepping up pressure again -- only now it's on the Bush
administration. And they are using different tactics. Rather than
sending protesters into the streets, they're buttonholing top
officials and showing up at President Bush's doorstep on short notice
to urge that democratic rule be preserved in Haiti.

"This is an urgent moment calling for urgent action," Rep. Elijah
Cummings, D-Md., said Wednesday after he notified Bush's top aides
that members of the Congressional Black Caucus would pay an impromptu
visit to the White House.

It is unclear whether the Democrats will succeed this time.

Bush said Wednesday that the United States was seeking a political
solution to the crisis in Haiti, and his administration has made
clear it has no desire to send in troops beyond the 50 Marines who
arrived there Monday to protect the U.S. Embassy.

The president said he supports creation of an international security
presence in Haiti to maintain order if a political settlement is
reached.

The United States sent 20,000 troops to Haiti to restore Aristide to
power in 1994, three years after Aristide -- the country's first
democratically elected president -- was toppled by a coup. Since
then, Aristide has been criticized by the United States for
corruption, for rigged 2000 legislative elections and for violence
against his political opponents.

On Wednesday, Bush made it clear that Haitians trying to flee to the
United States by sea would be turned away.

American blacks contend that policy smacks of racism. They say the
United States is unwilling to risk sending soldiers into the chaotic
Caribbean nation, the Western Hemisphere's poorest, because its
people are of African descent.

When Bush's words reached Jesse Jackson in Libya on Wednesday, he
began dialing up members of Congress and administration officials to
lash out.

"It is clear that the right wing in this country does not support
that democracy," Jackson said in a telephone interview. "(Bush) is,
in fact, supporting overthrow of this government in this hemisphere."

On Capitol Hill, 18 black caucus members, plus Rep. Jan Sikorsky,
D-Ill., hopped on a bus and went to the White House. Their main
demands to Secretary of State Colin Powell and Bush's national
security adviser, Condoleezza Rice, were that the United States call
for a cease-fire in Haiti, create a humanitarian buffer zone in the
capital, Port-au-Prince, and work to keep Haiti from slipping again
into the clutches of a dictatorship.

The lawmakers argued that the United States was encouraging the
insurgency by refusing to restore humanitarian aid, and they asked
the administration to send in troops to protect Haitian officials.

"We cannot have (Aristide's) life taken away on our watch," Rep.
Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., said beforehand.

Rice emphasized the administration's hopes for a political framework
that could lead to a peace accord. Powell said now was simply not the
time for military intervention, even though "we're just as concerned
about the loss of human life as you are."

The lawmakers asked for Bush, and Bush joined the meeting. They
stressed the need for the humanitarian zone, and Bush said he would
think about it.

"He made it very, very clear he shared our concerns. His question was
whether he agreed with the solutions," Cummings said afterward.

Earlier this week, a klatch of Democratic senators also sat down with
Roger Noriega, the assistant secretary of state who led a delegation
to Haiti last weekend. One of them, Bill Nelson of Florida, whose
state has a sizable Haitian-American population, said later that the
administration's policy seemed designed to drive Aristide out of
power.

Jackson said tried to reach Powell before going to Libya, arguing
that the United States had a responsibility to stand by Aristide,
like it or not.

When he couldn't reach Powell, Jackson said he instead got on the
phone with Democratic front-runner John Kerry. Kerry spoke out
Tuesday, telling The New York Times that the Bush administration
encouraged revolt by cutting off humanitarian aid and adopting an
aloof posture toward Aristide.

On Monday night, when Powell returned his call, Jackson urged Powell
to engage in shuttle diplomacy between Aristide and opposition
leaders, and asked that Bush send U.S. soldiers to protect the
president's compound.

Late Wednesday, as the lawmakers' bus pulled away from the White
House, the Coast Guard intercepted a boat carrying 22 Haitians off
the coast of Miami.

"I can tell you from our visit if they didn't know, they really know
now, the importance of an international intervention with the United
States playing a leading role," said Rep. Kendrick Meek, D-Fla.

©2004 Associated Press  
.