20923: Esser: Caribbean Delays Recognising Government (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: D. Esser torx@joimail.com

Inter Press Service News Agency

Mach 27, 2004

Caribbean Delays Recognising Government
by Peter Richards

Its seat was left empty for a two-day summit that ended Friday, but
Haiti remained the main point of discussion by Caribbean Community
(CARICOM) leaders, who insist there can be no lasting solution to the
political crisis in the former French colony without their input.

PORT OF SPAIN, Mar 27 (IPS) - Its seat was left empty for a two-day
summit that ended Friday, but Haiti remained the main point of
discussion by Caribbean Community (CARICOM) leaders, who insist there
can be no lasting solution to the political crisis in the former
French colony without their input.

Late Friday, the leaders decided at their inter-sessional summit in
St Kitts to not formally recognise the interim government in Haiti.
Their unease over the Feb. 29 departure of President Jean-Bertrand
Aristide was behind the unanimous decision, various media reported.

Earlier, outgoing CARICOM chairman and Jamaican Prime Minister PJ
Patterson told his colleagues that any attempt to rebuild democracy
in the troubled CARICOM member state might be fruitless unless the
regional grouping is involved.

"We may be small in size, we certainly proclaim no military power,
but our influence in the hemisphere cannot be underestimated and I do
not believe there will be a lasting and permanent solution to the
problems in Haiti unless CARICOM is involved and allowed to make a
meaningful contribution," Patterson said in a statement.

The position found favour with Vaughan Lewis, a professor in
international relations at the University of the West Indies (UWI),
who believes CARICOM needs also to engage the United States more and
push for greater international involvement in Haiti.

"The fact of the matter is we have to engage the U.S. but we have to
do that by trying through our diplomacy to ensure that the issue of
Haiti becomes rapidly internationalised, multi-lateralised, and that
the U.N. (United Nations) be given a degree of authority to deal with
that situation over the long-term," he told IPS.

"The Caribbean countries have to recognise that they do not have an
autonomous role to play in this situation because we do not have the
capabilities to reach a resolution of certain aspects that the
Haitian situation requires. We therefore have to engage -- even when
we are not feeling nice to certain countries or people -- we have to
engage with them in serious diplomacy," Lewis added.

Political observers say Washington has been pressuring the Caribbean
countries to recognise the new, interim Haitian government, while
Jamaica's Foreign Minister KD Knight has dismissed suggestions the
United States planned to target Jamaica if it did not expel Aristide
from Kingston immediately.

Knight, who was in St. Kitts as part of the Jamaican delegation, told
Jamaican media Friday that he talked recently with U.S. Secretary of
State Colin Powell and the matter did not come up.

In recent months, CARICOM-U.S. relations have been stretched, with
the Caribbean leaders opposing the Washington-led war in Iraq and
calling for an independent probe into the circumstances that led to
Aristide, the nation's first democratically elected leader, being
forced from office.

The former priest turned president accused Washington of
orchestrating his removal and forcing him into exile, a claim denied
by the Bush administration, but Caribbean leaders have remained
unconvinced of the denial, given that the United States and other
members of the U.N. Security Council refused to answer Aristide's
call for a multinational force to restore order in the country just
days before his departure.

Haiti's interim Prime Minister Gerard Latortue was not invited to the
St Kitts summit after he refused to repudiate scathing remarks he
made earlier about CARICOM and Jamaica, which is providing temporary
asylum to Aristide.

In a statement, host country St Kitts said Caribbean leaders did not
extend the invitation to Latortue, who had signalled his intention to
attend the summit, "after he failed to issue an acceptable statement
clarifying his remarks on the 'freezing of diplomatic relations with
Jamaica and possibly CARICOM'."

The leaders, who stressed their adherence to democratic principles
concerning Haiti as a political stalemate was joined by a rebel
uprising that swept across the country in February, hardened their
position on Latortue after he shared a platform with rebel leaders --
some of whom are convicted death squad leaders and coup plotters --
in the Haitian town of Gonaives last weekend.

Caribbean political observers believe that Haiti's seat in the
15-member CARICOM will remain vacant until free and fair elections
are held in the nation of eight million people. Latortue has
suggested polls will be held within two years.

The region's final position on Haiti might be influenced also by the
briefing given by U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan's special envoy
on Haiti, Reginald Dumas, who recently completed a 10-day
fact-finding mission to the country, which is now home to a
multinational force led by U.S. Marines.

The former Trinidad diplomat, who met Caribbean leaders Thursday, is
due to present a report to Annan on Tuesday before travelling to
Washington to brief the Organisation of American States (OAS).

Lewis believes the issue of recognising Haiti's interim
administration is not as important as is being suggested, noting that
CARICOM could use the Cotonou convention, the trade and aid pact that
links African, Caribbean and Pacific States and the European Union
(EU), to find a solution.

"Prime Minister Latortue is somebody who has been seriously engaged
in Caribbean interaction before. He knows that Haiti has to function
within that sphere, said Lewis, adding, "CARICOM must ensure that the
position with regard to the evolution of the Haitian situation is
properly dealt with within the framework of ACP-EU relations".

Earlier this week, 30 non-government organisations (NGOs) said the
region must provide Haiti with the financial and technical resources
to: improve its physical infrastructure, including roads, utilities,
schools and hospitals; provide food security, and furnish capital for
economic development in agriculture, manufacturing and other
industries and services.

"The governments and people of the region must assist Haiti to get
money which is rightfully due to the country and special funds to
deal with the humanitarian crisis," the Caribbean NGOs said in a
statement.

"CARICOM should take the lead in a major international thrust for
donor funds to help the recovery of a country devastated by
consecutive dictatorships, undue external interference, the blockage
of critical funds and the destruction caused by the brutal invasion
of thugs," the group added.

After Senate elections in 2000 that some international bodies
labelled "flawed", donors and global financial institutions froze 500
million dollars earmarked for development in Haiti.

The Caribbean Conference of Churches (CCC) a Pan Caribbean ecumenical
organisation that includes churches in Haiti, said the "unwillingness
of the international community to make available to Haiti over the
past two years approved international aid" contributed to the lack of
democracy in the country.

"As a Caribbean organisation, the CCC is well aware that Caribbean
countries, for the most part, pride themselves on a democratic
tradition reflective of the strong desire of the peoples of the
region for ever deeper expressions of self-determination," it added.
.