22281: Esser: Latortue retreats (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: D. Esser torx@joimail.com

The Jamaica Observer
http://www.jamaicaobserver.com

June 6, 2004

Latortue retreats
Sends letter expressing deep regret at collapse of Haiti/Jamaica
relations


Haiti's interim prime minister, Gerard Latortue, has written to Prime
Minister to P J Patterson saying he wants to send an ambassador back
to Jamaica and expressing deep regret at the collapse of relations
between Kingston and Port-au-Prince over the Aristide affair,
regional sources said last night.

Neither Patterson nor the foreign minister, K D Knight, who is
abroad, were immediately available for comment, and Knight's deputy,
Delano Franklyn, said he had no knowledge of the correspondence. "I
am not aware of it," Franklyn said.

But highly reliable sources close to the Haiti/Caribbean Community
(Caricom) diplomatic impasse said that it would not be incorrect to
characterise the Latortue communication as coming close "to an
apology" as was likely to be achieved in the "arcane language and
world" of diplomacy.
Patterson was "personally pleased with the tone and message" conveyed
by the Latortue letter, said one regional source.

According to regional sources, there are now behind-the-scenes
efforts to have Latortue send a similar letter to the wider community
ahead of a regional summit in Grenada in July when leaders are to
take a decision on whether to recognise his government.
This letter would be probably routed through Caricom's current
chairman, Antigua and Barbuda's new prime minister, Baldwin Spencer.

Latortue became Haiti's interim prime minister after the ostensible
resignation and exile on February 29 of Jean-Bertrand Aristide during
a wave of civil unrest and an armed rebellion in Haiti. But Aristide
has insisted that he was all but kidnapped and bundled out of Haiti
by the United States.
The Americans deny the claim, saying that Aristide resigned in the
face of an impending rebel attack on the Haitian capital.

Although Caricom, at the time chaired by Patterson, had said that the
manner of Aristide's departure set a "dangerous precedent" for
leaders and called for an international investigation into Aristide's
kidnapping claim, the community signalled a willingness to work with
Latortue after his appointment, even though the group did not
immediately recognise his government.
But relations quickly went downhill when Jamaica announced that it
would allow Aristide and his wife Mildred to come to the island for a
10-week stay to reunite with their two young children. The Aristides,
who left Jamaica for South Africa a week ago, had initially been
taken to the Central African Republic from Haiti.

Latortue declared Jamaica's decision an unfriendly act, said he was
withdrawing Haiti's ambassador from Kingston, and claimed that
Caricom had historically hurt Haiti. He also suggested that Haiti had
little to gain from Caricom, which it formally joined in 1998.
Further, the interim prime minister snubbed Patterson by not showing
up in Kingston for a meeting, the invitation for which he had asked
the Jamaican leader.
Latortue compounded the offence when he appeared on a platform in
Haiti with rebel leaders, including convicted killers and drug
runners, and declared them heroes and freedom fighters.

But leading up to a Caricom summit in St Kitts in late March,
Latortue, hoping to have Haiti take its place at the table, began to
backtrack, telling Caricom's secretary-general, Edwin Carrington, by
letter, that there had been misrepresentation of his remarks - some
of which were made in English - in their translation from French and
Creole. Nonetheless, Caribbean leaders put his recognition on hold.

Latortue has, however, continued to make overtures to Caricom,
suggesting on a recent trip to Washington that Haiti needed the
community's help.
Last week, too, in Haiti he praised the manner in which the Jamaican
Government had applied the rules for Aristide's stay in the country,
saying that the ousted president's stay in the region did not cause
the disruption he had feared.

The same sentiments were echoed by Sue Cobb, the US ambassador in
Jamaica, in an interview with the Observer. (See Pages 43 - 50)
Aristide's presence in Jamaica and Caricom's call for the
investigation into Aristide's removal from power strained US/Jamaica
relations, but Cobb stressed the need for Caricom to come to Haiti's
assistance.
However, up to now, no Caricom state has signed up for a United
Nations peacekeeping force to Haiti. The UN peacekeepers will replace
a US-led force.
.