20781: Esser: ESC tells Caricom: Blank Haiti (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: D. Esser torx@joimail.com

Trinidad & Tobago Newsday

March 24, 2004

ESC tells Caricom: Blank Haiti
By Clint Chan Tack

ON the eve of the 15th CARICOM Inter-Sessional Heads of Government
summit in St Kitts/Nevis, the Emancipation Support Committee (ESC) is
calling on regional leaders not to recognise Haitian interim Prime
Minister Gerard Latortue’s government and demand the restoration of
Jean-Bertrand Aristide as Haiti’s “duly elected, legitimate political
leader.” Addressing a news conference at the ESC’s Maraval
headquarters, ESC chairman Khafra Kambon declared: “Any Caribbean
government which officially recognises this regime will, in effect,
be repudiating Caricom’s principled call for an international
investigation into the ouster of President Aristide.”

He hailed the Jamaican government for allowing Aristide and his wife
to remain there for ten weeks. Last week, Prime Minister Patrick
Manning said TT supported Jamaica’s actions where Aristide was
concerned and the Haitian situation will be “discussed at length” at
tomorrow’s summit. Kambon said Caricom must ensure that Aristide be
allowed to address the United Nations General Assembly about “his
forced removal from Haiti,” and even be prepared to help Aristide in
establishing a government-in-exile in the region if it becomes
necessary. He urged Caricom to pilot a resolution in the UN General
Assembly demanding the restoration of  Aristide as Haitian President
and the removal of all foreign forces from Haiti. Kambon said these
forces must be replaced by “a genuinely neutral, international
peace-keeping force, comprising military contingents from nations
which share a common historical, ethnic and/or geographical
connection with the nation and people of Haiti.” He said this new
force must disarm Haitian rebel forces, bring all wrongdoers to
justice, secure Aristide’s return and assist in  overseeing the
holding of fully democratic parliamentary and presidential elections
in Haiti.
.