22251: Esser: Haiti must repatriate its citizens who want to return (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: D. Esser torx@joimail.com

Jamaica Observer
http://www.jamaicaobserver.com

June 04, 2004

Editorial
Haiti must repatriate its citizens who want to return


Mr Gerard Latortue, the installed prime minister of Haiti, has been
signalling his wish to improve relations with Jamaica and the rest of
the Caribbean Community (Caricom).

Mr Latortue, we expect, will be saying, to anyone who will listen,
that with Jean-Bertrand Aristide having left Jamaica and the
Caribbean the objective conditions have changed for the better. So he
will soon be talking about sending an ambassador back to Kingston.

Mr Latortue will also be attempting to paint a picture of emerging
stability in Haiti, and to suggest - his diplomatic and political
gaffes notwithstanding - that his government is on track.

Unfortunately, however, there seems to be a jinx or hex on Mr
Latortue and his administration. When he is not cavorting with
convicted drug runners and human rights abusers and hailing them
freedom fighters and heroes, he is busy pushing his diplomatic size
10s into his mouth. Or his administration is getting itself into its
own way.

So, at a time when Mr Latortue wants to mend fences, or says he does,
his administration is antagonising its second closest neighbour and
Caricom's most influential political entity. Which, of course, is
Jamaica.

This week, Jamaica had reason to publicly complain that the Haitian
authorities seem disinterested in repatriating 130 of their citizens
who fled their country in the period leading up to, and in the
aftermath of, the coup d'etat against Mr Aristide.

Nearly 600 Haitians, seeking to escape the violence and instability
in their country, braved the seas in small, and sometimes unsafe
boats to reach Jamaica. Whatever the reason, one group now wants to
return home.

Jamaica has been attempting to accommodate them. Indeed, Jamaica has
good reason for this. After all, the country's limited resources are
under severe pressure from hosting the Haitian refugees.

But in any event, displaced people have a right of return to their
country of citizenship. Jamaica, in this regard, has been working
with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNCHR) and
the International Organisation for Migration (IOM).

The Haitian authorities, we have been told, are dragging their feet.
Not only have they not put arrangements in place to welcome the group
which should have returned home this week they, cynically it seems,
have asked Kingston for proof of the nationalities of the people who
want to return.

If Mr Latortue is serious about mending fences, genuinely wants good
relations with the region and wants to have his country return to a
place in Caricom, then he and his administration must get their act
together.

Mr Latortue must see to it that Haiti fulfills its international
obligations and repatriates its citizens.

But even more than its obligations to the international community, Mr
Latortue must ensure that Haiti meets the most basic of guarantees to
the Haitian people - their right of belonging. Their citizenship.

If the Latortue regime plays around, as it appears to be doing, it
won't be able to have the region's trust. And this will make it even
more difficult for it to have a place in Caricom.
.