21771: (Chamberlain) Caribbean-Haiti (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

   PORT-OF-SPAIN, Trinidad, May 6 (AP) -- Caribbean nations have asked the
Organization of American States to investigate the ouster of Haitian
President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, Trinidad's foreign minister said
Thursday.
   The 15-member Caribbean Community had initially called for a U.N.
investigation after Aristide left Haiti under pressure from the United
States and France on Feb. 29. Aristide says he was forced to resign by the
United States, a claim Washington denies.
   Opposition from France and the United States at the U.N. Security
Council makes it unlikely an investigation would originate there, Foreign
Affairs Minister Knowlson Gift said.
   For that reason, Caribbean leaders decided at a meeting held this week
in Antigua to take their request to the Washington-based OAS, he said.
   "It is quite likely it may reach the (OAS) general assembly later on
this year," Gift said. Caricom has taken the matter to the OAS permanent
council "as a first step," he said.
   OAS officials were not immediately available for comment.
   Caricom has refused to recognize Haiti's U.S.-backed interim government,
saying it will reconsider the issue at a meeting in July in Grenada.
   Caribbean leaders also tentatively agreed at their meeting this week to
contribute peacekeepers and police to an upcoming U.N. mission in Haiti.