22689: This Week in Haiti 22:18 07/14/2004 (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

"This Week in Haiti" is the English section of HAITI PROGRES
newsweekly. For the complete edition with other news in French
and Creole, please contact the paper at (tel) 718-434-8100,
(fax) 718-434-5551 or e-mail at <editor@haitiprogres.com>.
Also visit our website at <www.haitiprogres.com>.

                           HAITI PROGRES
              "Le journal qui offre une alternative"

                      * THIS WEEK IN HAITI *

                        July 14 - 20, 2004
                         Vol. 22, No. 18

CARIBBEAN LEADERS STILL SNUBBING HAITI'S COUP GOVERNMENT

In a victory for Haiti's anti-coup forces, Caribbean nations are
still refusing to recognize Haiti's de facto government, leaders
of the 15-member Caribbean Community, or CARICOM, announced June
7 after a four-day summit in St. Georges, Grenada.

However, under fierce pressure from Washington, CARICOM has sent
a high level delegation to Haiti this week to discuss terms for
restoring diplomatic ties.

A mission of five CARICOM foreign ministers   Antigua and
Barbuda's Harold Lovell, the Bahamas' Fred Mitchell, Barbados'
Billie Miller, Guyana's Rudy Insanally, and Trinidad and Tobago's
Knowlson Gift   met with de facto Prime Minister Gérard Latortue
for several hours starting at 10 a.m. on June 13. The mission was
joined by CARICOM's secretary general Edwin Carrington.

The meeting at the Primature appears not to have gone well, since
the normally loquacious Latortue left it without making any
statements to the reporters waiting outside, not even via a
spokesperson. The CARICOM ministers were also mum.

"It's gone well" was the only terse comment by Bahamian Foreign
Minister Mitchell after the meeting.

The Caribbean leaders fixed several conditions for recognition of
Haiti's de facto government at the summit. One of them calls for
the de facto government to stop persecuting and imprisoning
individuals loyal to President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, who was
"coup-napped" by U.S. Marines on Feb. 29 and is now exiled in
South Africa.

CARICOM also called for a clear election timetable and for
credible election machinery to be put in place. This condition is
unlikely to be met since the de facto government consummated the
9-member provisional electoral council (CEP) last week without
any representative from Aristide's Lavalas Family party (FL). In
the FL's place, the de facto CEP appointed a Duvalierist: Josepha
Raymond Gauthier, the daughter of Adrien Raymond, a former
foreign minister of the Duvalier dictatorship.

Caribbean leaders also called on the Latortue regime to disarm
all known criminals, particularly the "rebel" leaders who
spearheaded Aristide's illegal overthrow.

Human rights groups and fact-finding delegations have accused
Latortue's government of exacting political vengeance against
Aristide backers while allowing the "rebels" to keep their
weapons. Most of the "rebels" are former soldiers or Tonton
Macoutes, and their leaders have been convicted by Haitian courts
of murder and other crimes.

Perhaps the Caribbean leader who most strongly argued for holding
the line against Haiti's coup was St. Vincent and the Grenadines
Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves. "I haven't seen any progress by
Latortue's administration," he said during the summit. "The
position of the Government of St Vincent and the Grenadines,
unless I can be convinced otherwise, is that the heads [of
CARICOM states] or group of heads can go and meet Latortue. The
heads can go, but they will not be representing me."

"Latortue was installed by the Americans," he added. "You do not
have democracy in Haiti today."

Latortue reacted with customary bluster to this diplomatic
defeat. "How can you talk about a setback?" he bellowed while
interrupting one reporter questioning him about CARICOM's
declaration. "Where is this setback?" He called CARICOM's
conditions "utter nonsense" and tried to belittle the group,
saying that "regional organizations cannot say anything" about
Haiti's de facto regime after it had been recognized by the UN
Security Council (thanks to its being dominated by the U.S. and
France) and the Organization of American States at a Quito,
Ecuador summit last month.

"This problem is not really Haiti's," Latortue continued. "This
is a CARICOM problem, because within CARICOM they have the rule
of consensus and unanimity. But, basically, 12 out of the 14
CARICOM countries have decided to have relations with Haiti."
Latortue's outlandish claims that contradict manifest reality are
one of his trademarks.

He argued that Haiti has never had much to do with the regional
organization. "Relations were actually between CARICOM and
Aristide, not really between CARICOM and Haiti," he said.

Latortue pointed to an upcoming Washington lenders conference,
sponsored by the nations which installed him, to distract
attention from his "insignificant" neighbors' continuing
contempt. "It is the whole world that is with us," he blithely
declared, predicting that Haiti would be showered with aid. But
then, as if to acknowledge the universal skepticism with which
his remarks are greeted, he added: "If a head of government is
not optimistic then he will not progress... So, this is the
reason why I maintain my optimism for the sake of Haiti's
development, for the creation of jobs, for Haiti's fight against
corruption, and for Haiti behaving in a way that will prevent
insignificant countries from showing disrespect towards us."

Haiti's pro-coup politicians, who have been effectively sidelined
for months, finally had an issue to get lathered up about. Gérard
Pierre-Charles of the Organization of Struggling People (OPL) was
particularly strident. "CARICOM has proved to be irresponsible,"
he thundered, calling the group's position  "incredible" and
charging that "there has never been a CARICOM policy because it
was just following Aristide."

Pierre-Charles claimed that CARICOM had called for imprisoned
constitutional Prime Minister Yvon Neptune's release (see Haïti
Progrès, Vol. 22, No. 16, 6/30/2004) as a condition for
recognition (which CARICOM denies ever demanding). "I consider
this interference in Haiti's internal affairs," Pierre-Charles
said, repeating the de facto's widely scoffed at charge that
Neptune ordered the Feb. 11 massacre of 50 people in St. Marc.
"He would have killed 500 people, he would have killed 5,000
people," if not unconstitutionally removed, Pierre-Charles
frothed.

Neo-Duvalierist Hubert Deronceray used even more hyperbole. Like
Pierre-Charles, he called the phantom condition of Neptune's
release "a scandalous and immoral act" by a regional organization
which continues "to show that it is in the service of the
dictators, arsonists, murderers and criminals of the ousted
regime."

Deronceray also characterized the calls for disarmament of the
"rebels" as "statements that discredit CARICOM and make it sound
ridiculous."

Since its installation, CARICOM leaders have doggedly refused to
recognize Latortue's government. The regional group had worked
feverishly for a peaceful resolution to Haiti's political crisis
as "rebels" advanced on cities in Haiti's north.

In "The Caliviginy Statement on Haiti" (named for the island off
Grenada's coast where it was drafted), the Caribbean leaders
stated that they "remained opposed to any interruption of the
democratic process and reiterated that any such development could
constitute a dangerous precedent for democratically elected
governments."

"The removal of democratically elected governments by extra-
constitutional means is unacceptable to the membership of the
Community," the statement also reads.

By shunning Haiti's de facto regime, CARICOM continues to thwart
Washington's efforts to depict the Latortue government as
legitimate.

All articles copyrighted Haiti Progres, Inc. REPRINTS ENCOURAGED.
Please credit Haiti Progres.

                               -30-