22700: (Hermantin) Miami-Herald-Caribbean nations hope Haiti rift nearly healed (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: leonie hermantin <lhermantin@hotmail.com>

Posted on Thu, Jul. 15, 2004

Caribbean nations hope Haiti rift nearly healed

Caribbean Community officials said they have accepted the interim Haitian
government's assurances that fair elections will be held.

BY JACQUELINE CHARLES

Miami Herald


HAITI

Top Caribbean Community officials ended a visit to Haiti on Wednesday
expressing hope that a long-running political impasse between Haiti's
U.S.-backed interim government and Caribbean leaders over former President
Jean-Bertrand Aristide could soon come to an end.

The foreign ministers from the Bahamas, Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago,
Guyana and Antigua and Barbuda said their meetings with Haitian Prime
Minister Gerard Latortue and President Boniface Alexandre were ``positive
and encouraging.''

''I thought it was very successful, a very fruitful meeting,'' said Eugene
Newry, the Bahamian ambassador to Haiti, who joined his colleagues during
what is being described as ''frank discussions'' between delegation members
and Haiti's political players.

The aim of the talks, Caribbean officials said, was to obtain assurances
from Latortue that he was moving his troubled nation toward democracy by
working toward free, fair and transparent elections and addressing a host of
other concerns that have plagued the interim government since it was
installed in March.

Aristide left Haiti Feb. 29 amid a bloody revolt, saying he had not resigned
but was forced out by Washington and France. The two countries denied the
allegation.

Latortue, who has had a rocky relationship with his Caribbean neighbors
since becoming prime minister, did not comment on the CARICOM visit. CARICOM
has refused to recognize his government, even though Haiti is a member of
the regional body.

A summit of CARICOM leaders held in Grenada last week ordered the delegation
to Haiti to check the situation on the ground and to report back to the
heads of government.

The final decision on what happens next will be made by the heads of
government, CARICOM Assistant Secretary General Colin Granderson told The
Herald Wednesday during a brief layover in Miami from Haiti.

Granderson, quoting Barbados Foreign Affairs Minister Billie Miller, who
headed the mission, said CARICOM did not go to Haiti to impose its ''will,
ideas or conditions on Haiti'' -- a reply to suspicions voiced by Aristide
supporters and opponents during their meetings with the visitors Tuesday and
Wednesday.

While the reception from the Haitian government was friendly, some Haitians
in the private sector viewed CARICOM's visit with skepticism because of
media reports that the bloc had set conditions for resuming diplomatic ties
with Haiti, including the release of jailed Aristide supporters.

Granderson said the visitors did not ask for the freedom of jailed former
Prime Minister Yvon Neptune. But they did stress to Latortue that Neptune
should be given due process in his case, involving an alleged massacre of
Aristide opponents during the revolt, he added.

Latortue, officials said, gave those assurances and even told the group that
he had visited his predecessor in jail to assure him that the law would be
followed.

Micha Gaillard, spokesman for the Democratic Convergence, an opposition
coalition, said he was pleased with what he heard during his meeting with
the CARICOM visitors.

''They are looking for a door to get out of this situation,'' Gaillard said
in a telephone interview from Port-au-Prince. ``They said they will continue
to help Haiti. They have asked for the blockades on funding for Haiti to be
removed and they have sent a special envoy here. They want to collaborate
with Haiti seriously.''

Newry said he believes the visit helped to iron out a lot of
misunderstandings that existed between CARICOM and Haiti's political and
social classes.

''I am 100 percent optimistic that we will be able to move forward,'' he
said.

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