21487: Esser: Fanmi Lavalas seeks security guarantees before naming CEP representative (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: D. Esser torx@joimail.com

Agence Haïtienne de Presse

April, 20 2004

The Fanmi Lavalas Political Organization continues to seek security
guarantees and the revocation of arbitrary measures before it will
designate its representative to the new CEP

Port-au-Prince, April 20, 2004    -(AHP)- The delegation of the Fanmi
Lavalas Political Organization was unable to reach an agreement this
Monday with provisional Prime Minister Gérard Latortue after 10 hours
of discussions on the conditions put forward by the party to be met
before they will name a representative to the new Provisional
Electoral Council (CEP).

The two sides were close to reaching an agreement, however the head
of the provisional government wanted the representatives of Lavalas
to designate their representative to the electoral body at the same
time as the signing of a document relating to the investigation to be
conducted into the legality of the arrests that have been made of
Fanmi Lavalas officials and activists.

At that point, the representatives of the party demanded that the
authorities give some signs of good faith before Fanmi Lavalas would
be wiling to make further concessions.

The party of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide has already
contributed, they said, to the formation of the tripartite commission
that appointed the "council of the wise" in which the party is
represented but without having any of its members included in the
government of Latortue. 

The former Deputy from the 47th Legislature, Gilvert Angervil,
remarked that during Monday's meeting the Fanmi Lavalas officials
demanded that Mr. Latortue take concrete steps to provide guarantees
to the leaders and activists of Lavalas who are being persecuted
across the country.

He said that the proposal made by Gérard Latortue was a trap, and
added that no serious elections are possible in Haiti without the
participation of Lavalas which he said represents the majority of the
population.

According to a source close to the interim government, Mr. Latortue
is reluctant to deal immediately with all the cases of persons
arrested under conditions seen as illegal lest he displease the
judicial officials who ordered the arrests and the travel bans that
affect Fanmi Lavalas leaders and members.

Another spokesperson for Fanmi Lavalas, Rudy Hérivaux, Denounced the
intensification of a campaign of repression and denigration
orchestrated against the party and its supporters.

Rudy Hérivaux said he believes that this campaign is intended to
exclude the majority of the population from the affairs of the
country.

He asserted that some sectors are attempting to destabilize Fanmi
Lavalas because they are afraid of the weight the party carries on
the electoral scales.  

Rudy Hérivaux indicated that Fanmi Lavalas is ready to join the CEP
provided that the persecution of its supporters is brought to an end.

" We have always repeated that elections are the only avenue to power
in any democratic system, but one cannot ask us to designate a
representative to the CEP while our members and leaders are
persecuted or imprisoned in an illegal manner", he said. 

For his part, a spokesperson for the Democratic Convergence, Micha
Gaillard, declared that the conditions imposed by Fanmi Lavalas are
dilatory maneuvers.

Micha Gaillard stated that Fanmi Lavalas activists are not being
persecuted, despite what the party leaders have been saying.

The political parties and sectors of civil society belonging to the
former opposition to President Aristide systematically refused to
designate their representatives to the CEP or prevented them from
taking the oath of office so long as President Aristide was in power,
on the pretext that the necessary security conditions had not been
established.

Micha Gaillard considered that conditions are different today despite
the presence of several armed groups operating across the country at
the same time as the national police and the multinational force are
deployed.

The ex-rebels do not constitute any danger to Lavalas supporters, he
said, pressing the party to proceed with naming its representative to
the CEP so as not to give the impression, he said, that the party
wishes to boycott the electoral process.
.