20624: (Arthur) Interim Government Excludes Aristide's Party (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Tttnhm@aol.com

HAITI: Interim Government Excludes Aristide's Party
by Jim Lobe

WASHINGTON, Mar 18 (IPS) - The interim Haitian government named Wednesday
excludes members of ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide's Lavalas Party and
represents a ”narrow sector of society”, according to one group monitoring
developments in the country.

The administration's members were sworn-in at the capital Port-au-Prince
nearly three weeks after the democratically elected Aristide was taken from the
violence-riddled country in what he calls a kidnapping by U.S. forces.

New U.S-backed Prime Minister Gerard Latortue had earlier promised that
Aristide's Lavalas and other major parties would be included in his government but
apparently changed his mind.

”Latortue chose wisely,” said U.S. Ambassador James Foley, who was on hand
for the swearing-in. He stressed the new government could count on significant
aid from the Bush administration and international financial institutions
(IFIs), which had largely denied assistance to Aristide at Washington's behest
after opposition candidates protested elections in 2000.

Wednesday's ceremony took place two days after Aristide, who was flown to the
Central African Republic on Feb. 29, arrived in Jamaica aboard a plane
specially chartered by U.S. supporters, notably Representative Maxine Waters.

Aristide, who has insisted that he was exiled by Washington against his will,
has said he intends to remain in Jamaica, where he and his wife have been
reunited with two young daughters they sent to the United States during last
month's violent uprising, for eight to ten weeks. He has also insisted that he
remains the legitimate president of Haiti.

The Jamaican government, which had headed U.S.-backed efforts by the
Caribbean Community (CARICOM) to mediate between the unarmed opposition in Haiti and
Aristide, and its CARICOM partners have demanded an independent international
investigation of the circumstances under which Aristide went into exile.

That demand has been supported by South Africa and the members of the African
Union (AU), as well as some Democratic lawmakers in the U.S. Congress,
particularly members of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC). But the United Nations
has not acted on the call, saying it has yet to receive an official request.

Jamaica has declined to recognise Haiti's interim government pending a
CARICOM meeting later this month. After Prime Minister PJ Patterson announced
Aristide would be permitted to travel to Jamaica, Latortue recalled Haiti's
ambassador in Kingston and suspended formal ties.

Washington also denounced Jamaica's decision to welcome Aristide, suggesting,
in Foley's words, it could ”destabilise” the situation in Haiti.

Jamaica and CARICOM have also so far rejected U.S. appeals to contribute
police to a multilateral force that to date includes more than 1,500 Marines and
another 1,000 troops from France, Chile and Canada.

The multilateral forces have so far remained largely in the capital, where
they have come under occasional fire from poorly armed fighters who are believed
to back Aristide.

Soldiers have not yet moved into the countryside or to other towns and
cities, some of which are reported to remain largely under the control of armed
rebels, some of them former army soldiers and members of a paramilitary group that
human rights groups say killed hundreds of suspected Aristide supporters
during the last period of military rule, 1991-94.

In a letter to U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell last week, Human Rights
Watch (HRW) urged that the multinational troops be sent into the countryside.

”There is still a power vacuum in much of the rest of the country,” it said,
adding, ” Not only is such chaos and instability likely to lead more
desperate Haitians to seek refuge in the United States, it destroys the local economy
and creates conditions that favour the spread of drug trafficking”.

Latortue's decision to exclude Lavalas members from his interim government
could inflame an already-polarised situation. Most analysts consider Lavalas to
be Haiti's largest party by far and the only one that has historically
represented the interests of the country's poor, who make up the vast majority of its
eight million people.

''The plan was to try to set the stage for reconciliation,” said Yvon
Neptune, Aristide's prime minister who resigned last week to make way for Latortue, a
U.S.-educated former U.N. official and businessman who served briefly in one
Haitian government but has lived most of his adult life in the United States.

”There should at least be a sincere expression of accepting Lavalas as an
organisation,” Neptune told Associated Press.

After being sworn-in, Latortue called for elections to be held within six to
eight months.

A couple of new cabinet members are associated with Aristide's unarmed
opposition, the so-called Group of 184, although some opposition leaders expressed
frustration they did not get a larger share of the posts.

The London-based Haiti Support Group, which has been critical of both
Aristide and the international community's role in the nation, identified the interim
justice minister, Bernard Gousse, as an active member of the Group of 184 and
noted that the foreign affairs minister, Yvon Simeon, acted as the
opposition's representative in Europe.

”Although we were led to believe that the interim government would be
broad-based and inclusive,” it said, ”it does appear to represent rather a narrow
sector of society.”

It also noted that, like Latortue, a number of cabinet members have served
with U.N. organisations, reflecting the hope that they will be able to quickly
restart substantial flows of foreign aid.

”We should point out that the United Nations and its Bretton Woods
Institutions (the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund) have been very active
in Haiti for many decades without making any discernible progress with the
country's social or economic development,” the group said.

But it reserved its greatest concern at the nomination of former General
Herard Abraham as the interim interior minister. Abraham, the former head of the
Haitian Armed Forces, won international acclaim for peacefully surrendering
power to a civilian administration, but he has recently declared his support for
the reestablishment of the Armed Forces, which Aristide dissolved in 1995.

International human rights groups, such as Amnesty International, have
repeatedly urged that the army, given its historic record of repression and
brutality, not be resurrected.

Abraham reportedly met Tuesday with Guy Philippe, an ex-soldier who emerged
as the chief of last month's anti-Aristide rebellion, which left dozens of
people dead.

Philippe, who had promised to disarm his forces after the arrival of the
Marines, told reporters later that he and Abraham had discussed disarming
Aristide's supporters.

The Support Group also noted that three existing ministries -- environment,
Haitians living abroad, and culture -- have been downgraded to secretaries of
state in the transitional administration.

”While there may be a case for cuts in public expenditure,” the group said,
”we would insist that these arguments are better put to those proposing the
reinstatement of the Haitian Army.” (END/2004)

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Solidarity with the Haitian people's struggle for justice, participatory
democracy and equitable development, since 1992.
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