20587: Esser: Threats to Aristide supporters (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: D. Esser torx@joimail.com

Granma International Digital
http://www.granma.cu/ingles

March 18, 2004

Threats to Aristide supporters

PORT-AU-PRINCE, March 18.—Members of the party headed by the deposed
president of Haiti, Jean Bertrand Aristide, are being repressed and,
according to his former minister Leslie Voltaire, his former aides
are under threat.

Voltaire stated today that members of the Lavalas Family Party cannot
meet and are being subjected to a veritable witch hunt.

To the satisfaction of Washington and Paris, the new Haitian
government is taking its first steps in the midst of a political
crisis that is far from showing signs of being resolved, given the
immediate rejection it received, Prensa Latina notes.

The new prime minister, Gerard Latortue – who returned to the country
on March 10 to assume the position after 16 years of exile basically
in the United States, has sworn in the 19 members of his cabinet: 13
ministers and six secretaries of state.

The ceremony at the National Palace under strict security measures
imposed by the U.S. military force deployed in the country, was
characterized by scant reference to the national reconciliation
promised by Latortue.

The French government, the former colonial metropolis, has decided
that Dominique de Villepin, its foreign minister, will be the first
foreign dignitary to visit the country in response to an invitation
by the new government. He should arrive in Haiti before the end of
the month.

The significance of this act is evident: it will be the first visit
from a head of French diplomacy since Haiti’s independence in 1804,
according to the AFP news agency.
.