20852: (Chamberlain) Caribbean Summit (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

   By BERT WILKINSON

   BASSETERRE, St. Kitts, March 26 (AP) -- The 15-nation Caribbean
Community does not plan to recognize Haiti's new U.S.-backed interim
government, senior Caribbean officials said Friday.
   Several senior officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the
region's leaders made the decision by consensus on their second and final
day of a summit.
   They said they decided not have formal relations with the new government
due to concerns about the departure of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide on
Feb. 29 and the precedent it could set.
   On Thursday leaders demanded the U.N. General Assembly investigate
Aristide's claims he was abducted at gunpoint by U.S. agents when he left
as rebels threatened to attack Haiti's capital.
   Asked if the regional bloc would recognize the new interim government,
one national leader said, speaking on condition of anonymity: "Our people
would not allow us to do that."
   Talks continued Friday but officials said their minds were made up. They
said they would discuss the issue again at their regular annual summit in
July in Grenada.
   Jamaican officials said Aristide will take permanent asylum in South
Africa, but not until it holds general elections next month. Aristide has
been in temporary exile in Jamaica since March 15, despite protests from
U.S. and Haitian officials.
   Caribbean leaders are "still upset and uncomfortable" about Aristide's
departure, and made that clear to U.N. special envoy Reginald Dumas when he
listened to their debate, St. Kitts and Nevis Prime Minister Denzil Douglas
told The Associated Press Thursday.
   "We are prepared to discuss the possibility of identifying exactly what
were the circumstances," Douglas said. "We are taking this matter to the
U.N. General Assembly for clarification."
   Conference officials said the 15-nation regional bloc wants the General
Assembly to investigate rather than the Security Council, where the United
States or France could veto the proposal.
   The Caribbean can expect support from the 53-member African Union, which
last month echoed its demand.
   The officials say Aristide has told Caribbean leaders that he was
abducted at gunpoint by U.S. agents and put on a U.S.-chartered aircraft
that carried him to the Central African Republic.
   U.S. officials say they organized the Feb. 29 departure at Aristide's
request and probably saved his life as rebels who had overrun half the
country threatened to attack Haiti's capital.
   Caribbean leaders are angry that the Security Council refused their
urgent plea to send international troops to save Aristide, Haiti's first
democratically elected leader, but speedily sanctioned a U.S.-led
intervention after he fled.
   The Caribbean bloc refused to join that peacekeeping force, but on
Thursday considered sending troops with a separate U.N. humanitarian force
to help rebuild Haiti, Douglas said. It would deploy within three months.
   Douglas also said Caribbean leaders remain angry with interim Haitian
Prime Minister Gerard Latortue, who was not invited to the summit after he
criticized the group for allowing Aristide to return to the region from
Africa.