20028: Esser: Caricom leaders should not turn backs on Haiti (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: D. Esser torx@joimail.com

The Barbados Advocate
http://www.barbadosadvocate.com

Sun Mar 07 2004

Caricom leaders should not turn backs on Haiti
By Petal Barclay-Smith

Caricom governments are being called upon to reject out of hand any
suggestion that Haiti be expelled or suspended from Caricom.

To suspend or expel Haiti from Caricom at this critical time would
amount to a colossal betrayal of the legitimate, constitutional
government of Haiti.

This is the contention of the Clement Payne Movement and the Pan
Caribbean Congress at a media briefing recently at the Clement Payne
Centre.

President and co-ordinator David Comissiong said that such an act
would also play directly into the hands of the Republican
Administration in the United States of America and its strategically
located agents in Haiti’s so-called “Opposition Movement”.

“Rather than expelling Haiti, Caricom must remain engaged in Haiti.
Our leaders must insist that since Haiti is a member state of
Caricom, the Caribbean Community countries must play a central role
in crafting and implementing an appropriate response to the crisis in
Haiti,” Comissiong said.

He indicated that it is an undeniable fact that Haiti holds a place
of special significance within both the Pan-African family of nations
and the family of nations of Latin America and the Caribbean.

Comissiong said, “Haiti was pivotal in both the destruction of the
international system of enslavement of African peoples and the
destruction of the system of European colonialism in Latin America
and the Caribbean.”

Comissiong also indicated that Caricom governments should take the
initiative to urgently reach out to and engage with the African Union
and the major nations of Latin America in order to establish an
African/CARICOM/Latin America coalition of nations which will insist
on taking the lead role in dealing with Haiti.

He said that if such a coalition can be put together, CARICOM must
insist that the United Nations and the international community
approve the coalition in the implementing of, among other things,
“the removal from Haiti of all forces implicated in the kidnapping of
President Aristide and the disarming of the so called rebel forces by
the multi-national peace keepers”.
.