21124: (Hermantin)Miami-Herald-Powell announces $9 million for Haiti (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: leonie hermantin <lhermantin@hotmail.com>

Posted on Tue, Apr. 06, 2004


Powell announces $9 million for Haiti

Secretary of State Colin Powell, visiting Haiti, bolsters the beleaguered
country's interim administration and announces $9 million in U.S.
assistance.

BY WARREN P. STROBEL

wstrobel@krwashington.com


PORT AU PRINCE - Secretary of State Colin Powell gave Washington's strong
backing Monday to Haiti's interim leaders, offering rhetorical support and
new aid to smooth the country's return to constitutional rule.

At a news conference with Powell, interim Prime Minister Gerard Latortue
announced that the country's civic groups have agreed to elections next
year. He did not give a date.

During the five-hour visit, Powell rejected a call by Haiti's Caribbean
neighbors for a United Nations investigation into the circumstances
surrounding the Feb. 29 departure from power of President Jean-Bertrand
Aristide. Aristide, who left Haiti aboard a U.S. plane after a three-week
revolt fueled by discontent over corruption, has charged that he was forced
from office in an American-engineered coup d'état.

''I don't think any purpose would be served by such an inquiry,'' Powell
said of the request by the Caribbean Community, whose members have declined
to recognize the new government. ``The facts are very well known.''

Powell added, ``It was only six weeks ago that Haiti was on the verge of
total security collapse. We prevented a bloodbath and a coup from taking
place.''

SPECIAL FUND

Powell met with Latortue and interim President Boniface Alexandre during his
visit and announced that the United States would contribute $9 million to a
special fund overseen by the Organization of American States to build
democracy in Haiti.

Powell, at a news conference with Latortue, said he had told the interim
prime minister that ``the United States will be providing him with full
support.''

Powell also confirmed that U.S. law enforcement officials are investigating
Aristide to see if he received money from drug traffickers in connection
with the movement of cocaine through Haiti, though he declined to give
details.

''There are inquiries being made by our judicial authorities in the United
States to see if there's any wrongdoing on his part,'' he said in response
to a question from a Haitian journalist. ``I can't comment further.''

Powell is the highest-ranking U.S. official to visit Haiti since the fall of
Aristide, and his remarks opposing any inquiry into the former president's
departure underscored a U.S. desire to prevent Aristide, who first went to
the Central African Republic but now is in Jamaica, from returning to power.

Powell's last visit to Haiti was in September 1994, when he, former
President Carter and retired Sen. Sam Nunn, D-Ga., negotiated the departure
of a Haitian regime and Aristide's return to power. Those talks averted a
U.S. invasion; American troops instead landed in Haiti unopposed.

A 3,500-member multinational force composed of U.S., French, Canadian and
Chilean troops is currently keeping the peace.

Latortue said he signed an agreement with Haitian civic groups Sunday night
that calls for presidential elections in 2005, a timetable that's longer
than the 90 days provided for in Haiti's Constitution. ''I think all
political parties agree that elections cannot be held in 90 days,'' he said.

Latortue said he and Powell agreed that no Haitian person or party should be
excluded from the elections, as long as they forswore violence and were
committed to democracy.

ELECTORAL COUNCIL

A provisional electoral council will be established after Easter, he said.

Latortue also announced that he would create a commission modeled after
South Africa's post-apartheid Truth and Reconciliation Commission to deal
with past crimes and grievances, The Associated Press reported.

Between meetings with government officials, Powell visited an AIDS clinic
that receives some funding from the U.S. Agency for International
Development.

As U.S. Marines and Haitian national police blocked a wide stretch of Harry
Truman Avenue in the neighborhood around the Gheskio Centero Center,
thousands of residents gathered near the center to watch.

Jean Boicale, 55, an unemployed farm hand, was somewhat critical of the
Powell visit.

''If he's just coming to see, that's no good,'' Boicale said. ``Is he
bringing medicine, food and money? These are the things the people here
need.''


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Herald staff writer Michael A.W. Ottey in Port-au-Prince contributed to this
report.

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