20507: Esser: Con-men out for your money (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: D. Esser torx@joimail.com

Trinidad & Tobago Express
http://www.trinidadexpress.com

March 17th 2004

Con-men out for your money
By Rickey Singh

WHAT a shameful blunder by an unelected, interim Prime Minister of
Haiti to have declared a suspension of that Caribbean nation's
relations with the Caribbean Community.

Gerard LaTortue may be de facto Prime Minister but his own legitimacy
remains an issue in the continuing Haitian crisis. He may well have
contributed to further isolating Haiti at a time when it needs more
than ever the support of the Caribbean Community family to which it
belongs and officially embraced as a member in 1998.

The dramatic development of the announced suspension came Monday as
the ousted Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide-forced out of
office on February 29 by the USA and France-arrived in Jamaica with
his Haitian-American wife, Mildred, for a private ten-week stay
before moving on to a yet determined new destination. It could be
South Africa.

In Port-au-Prince the 69-year-old LaTortue, installed by a US-backed
advisory council as interim Prime Minister, after he was sworn in by
interim President Bonafice Alexandre-himself yet to be endorsed by a
non-functioning parliament-evidently was pushed into making his
surprise announcement of Haiti's suspension in Caricom relations by
the George Bush administration.

Do not be surprised if there should come a quick, firm denial of any
official Washington involvement in LaTortue's announced decision,
even as America continues to dismiss as false its involvement in
ousting Aristide from power.

It is, nevertheless, advisable to recall the various hints and veiled
warnings that kept coming from officials of the Bush administration,
including diplomatic personnel in Jamaica and Haiti and also National
Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, about it being a "bad" or "risky"
idea for Jamaica to host the Aristides, even for a temporary period.

Had the situation for Haiti not been so tragic, LaTortue's
announcement that he had decided to "put to sleep" Haiti's diplomatic
and other relations with Caricom would be greeted with hilarity.

Except that this is not a time for laughter but to weep, as the
chronically poor people of Haiti, existing in the most wretched
circumstances in the entire Western Hemisphere, continue to risk
their lives to find shelter in the "land of the free and home of the
brave" that prefers Cuban asylum-seekers to Haitian refugees.

Debarred from turning up on America's shores as refugees, Haitians,
whether for or against a government under Aristide, are now faced
with the military presence of US, French and Canadian troops as an
interim administration in Port-au-Prince which is not recognised by
Caricom, suspends relations with Caricom.

Legal opinion, as considered up to Monday in preparation for
Caricom's 15th Inter-Sessional Meeting next week in St Kitts, was
that the Community is under no obligation to extend diplomatic
relations to what currently exists as a "government" in
Port-au-Prince.

But the Caricom leaders, constituting the highest organ of the
Community, had decided at their emergency summit in Kingston,
Jamaica, on March 11 to defer making a decision on Haiti's membership
status until they meet for their 15th Inter-Sessional Meeting next
week.

Agonising over the desire for continuing solidarity with the people
of Haiti and the dangerous precedent created by the reported forced
removal from office of Aristide, the Caricom heads of government
wanted to assess unfolding developments in post-Aristide Haiti in
finally determining that country's status as a Community member.

Now interim Prime Minister LaTortue has swiftly taken them off the
hook, so to speak, by announcing a freeze in Haiti's relations with
Caricom as an expression of official anger (more in Washington than
Port-au-Prince?) over the temporary hosting of Aristide by Jamaica.

Incidentally, it is relevant to note that Jamaica's decision to host
Aristide and his wife for eight to ten weeks, along with their two
children, was done with the full knowledge and concurrence of Caricom.

Further, the USA, Canada and France, all three of which were
originally involved in the Caricom "Action Plan" for a resolution to
the crisis in Haiti-before the removal from power of Aristide-had
also been informed of the decision to have the Aristides in Jamaica.

LaTortue knew all about that when he contacted Caricom's current
chairman, Prime Minister PJ Patterson of Jamaica, and discussed his
possible visit to Kingston for talks ahead of the forthcoming
Inter-Sessional Meeting of Community leaders in St Kitts.

That proposed visit by LaTortue to Jamaica, as I have gathered, was
agreed to with the understanding that it should not be confused as
"recognition" of the interim regime in Port-au-Prince, and without
prejudice to Caricom's coming decision on Haiti's status as a member
of the Community.

As the controversies rage over the ousting of Aristide and his
presence in Jamaica, some 130 miles away from Haiti, LaTortue will
come to realise that having done a political hatchet job on Caricom
on behalf of his sponsor, Uncle Sam, he may not even be around to
function as Prime Minister of a new and legitimate government in
Port-au-Prince.

For their part, Caricom leaders have to maintain the distinction
between the circumstances of Aristide's fall from power and what
practical forms of support the Community may yet be able to offer
Haiti once re-admitted to membership.

Since it is now of academic interest, in view of LaTortue's
announcement, whether Haiti should remain a Caricom member, the issue
for next week's Inter-Sessional Meeting in St Kitts is the
circumstances, or conditions under which a legitimate government of
Haiti could negotiate that country's re-admission to Caricom.

 From what I know, Haiti under a newly elected government should have
no problems in seeking re-admission to Caricom.

For the present, Caricom would most likely press ahead with plans
that were under consideration before Monday's announcement of
suspension of Haiti's membership, to widen a coalition of countries
interested in an independent international probe to determine whether
Aristide voluntarily resigned or, as widely believed, was forced out
of power.
.