21766: Esser: Caribbean States Turn to OAS to Probe Aristide Ouster (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: D. Esser torx@joimail.com

Inter Press Service News Agency IPS
http://www.ipsnews.net

May 7, 2004

Caribbean States Turn to OAS to Probe Aristide Ouster
by Peter Richards

PORT OF SPAIN, May 7 (IPS) - No doubt aware of the influence of the
United States and France within the United Nations, Caribbean nations
are adopting a new strategy in their quest for an independent probe
of how Haiti's first-ever democratically elected president,
Jean-Bertrand Aristide, was ousted from office Feb. 29.

At the conclusion of their two-day Caribbean Community (CARICOM)
meeting in Antigua this week, the leaders announced they are no
longer interested in pursuing the matter before the United Nations,
but are instead looking to forward their concerns to the Organisation
of American States (OAS).

”We had made, as CARICOM, an overture to the U.N. seeking that the
matter be ventilated there. Unfortunately, because of the structure
of the U.N., you either had to have approval of the United Nations
General Assembly, the Security Council or, thirdly, the
secretary-general,” Trinidad and Tobago Foreign Minister Knowlson
Gift told a news conference Thursday.

”If any single one of those various layers offered any objection, the
matter was going to die right there,” Gift said, no doubt
articulating the leaders' view of Paris and Washington's positions
within the Security Council.

Both nations are permanent members of the council with the power to
veto motions. A Caribbean diplomat at the United Nations previously
told IPS the region's nations were under ”tremendous pressure” not to
publicly push for the investigation.

Aristide, who was flown from Haiti on a U.S. plane, maintains he was
kidnapped at the behest of Washington and Paris.

University of the West Indies political scientist Neville Duncan says
CARICOM's new approach is a good one.

”The choice of the OAS is a choice that says this is still initially
a hemispheric matter and before one goes to the global body one
should exhaust remedies within the hemispheric framework first, and I
think that is a sensible position to take,” he told reporters by
telephone from Jamaica.

”My problem with it is that it has taken them (CARICOM) this long to
decide, because after a while we had begun to feel that they did not
want to go forward with a decision to seek for a proper
investigation. But at least I am glad to see that they are going to
proceed with it.”

Antigua and Barbuda Foreign Minister Harold Lovell will present the
region's case to the OAS Permanent Council once all CARICOM
governments have endorsed it.

CARICOM'S request calls for the chairman of the Permanent Council to
convene a meeting to discuss the situation in Haiti with a view to
invoking Article 20 of the Inter-American Democratic Charter. It
provides for an assessment of the situation ”in the event of an
unconstitutional alteration of the constitutional regime that
seriously impairs the democratic order in a member state.”

The OAS has already signalled its intention to consider the request
from CARICOM, ”like all other requests in the organisation,” says its
deputy secretary general, Luigi Einaudi.

But Einaudi told the Barbados-based Caribbean Media Corporation (CMC)
that the interim Haitian administration in Port-au-Prince might have
a head start on CARICOM after itself invoking sections of the charter.

Interim Haitian Prime Minister Gerard Latortue might have ”understood
the spirit of the situation” by invoking sections of the charter in
”requesting OAS support for a set of elections he believes Haiti has
to hold in the course of the next year”, he added.

In an address to the OAS Permanent Council on Thursday, Latortue not
only urged Caribbean governments to support his new administration,
but also called on them to back an initiative for fresh elections in
2005.

”Haiti is a member of CARICOM and proposes to continue being a
member,” Latortue said. ”In this key moment of its history, my
country needs all of you. May the misunderstandings be left behind.”

CARICOM leaders will decide at their annual summit in Grenada in July
whether to support the elections and recognise Haiti's interim
administration, even as they continue to publicly denounce the manner
in which Aristide, a former Roman Catholic priest, was removed from
office.

But the claim of Aristide, who was first flown to the Central African
Republic, has been denied by the United States and France, and
Washington has also urged CARICOM to recognise the Latortue
administration.

In mid-March, Aristide flew to Jamaica to, he says, visit with his
children. He was to have left last week, but there is some dispute as
to whether he will now go into exile in South Africa.

One regional diplomat says the Haitian crisis presents CARICOM with
an opportunity to show its ability to successfully help resolve
issues in its own backyard.

Suriname Ambassador Albert Ramdin, who is also an advisor to OAS
Secretary General Cesar Gaviria, told an Inter-American Dialogue
forum at the OAS on Wednesday that the regional body is pursuing
efforts to end the crisis even though ”there is no fixed set of rules
and guiding principles in the political, legal and operational
structures of the Caribbean Community on how to respond to conflicts”.

In that vein, he argued, the crisis should not be seen ”as a formal
response to the request for assistance from a sister nation in the
community”.

CARICOM has pledged to send troops to Haiti but not as part of the
U.N. mission expected to take over from a multinational, U.S.-led
force Jun. 1. Trinidad and Tobago Prime Minister Patrick Manning said
last week the troops will be under the command of a Caribbean
national.

The regional body has also not yet delivered aid to its devastated
member state, although leaders have said repeatedly that an
assistance programme would be geared toward helping the Haitian
people.

Einaudi stressed that the interim administration in Port-au-Prince
must spare no effort to guarantee the effective participation of all
of Haiti's political forces in next year's elections.

”There can be no place in the national task of reconstruction for
groups armed outside the law or convicted criminals. These are
fundamental principles on which we (the OAS) are prepared to work,”
he said.
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