21498: Esser: Bahamas withdraws all Diplomats from Haiti (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: D. Esser torx@joimail.com

Club Haiti
http://www.telepark.de/clubhaiti/start.html

April 23, 2004

Bahamas withdraws all Diplomats from Haiti 

The Bahamas has withdrawn all its diplomats from Haiti, following the
shooting and robbery of its ambassador’s wife and a threatening
telephone call to the wife of a second diplomat. Bahamian Foreign
Affairs Minister Fred Mitchell told the Bahamian Parliament that the
government didn’t believe the shooting was politically motivated. But
a Caribbean diplomat, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said he
understood the Bahamas was investigating whether the two incidents
were related and connected to the bad relations between Haiti’s
U.S.-backed interim government and the 15-nation Caribbean Community
that has refused to recognize it. The community has called for the
U.N. to investigate the departure of ousted President Jean-Bertrand
Aristide, who charges he was forced from power by the U.S. The
Bahamas is the only Caribbean country with an embassy in Haiti,
though Barbados has a consulate. Francoise Newry, wife of
Ambassador Eugene Newry, was shot and robbed of her handbag at a
market near the downtown presidential palace on Saturday. That night,
Michelle Williams, wife of the embassy’s second secretary, received a
threatening telephone call. "The threatening phone call prompted the
Bahamas government to order the entire diplomatic staff back to the
Bahamas," according to a government spokesman. Mrs. Newry underwent
surgery in Nassau, the Bahamian capital, where a bullet was removed
from her left buttock. [Source: AP / Nassau Guardian]
.