24072: (pub) Chamberlain: Regional leaders push Haiti to end rights abuses (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

     By Irwin Arieff

     UNITED NATIONS, Jan 12 (Reuters) - Haiti's government must do more to
push national reconciliation before November elections by freeing political
prisoners and ending rights abuses now that U.N. peacekeepers are restoring
stability, regional leaders said on Wednesday.
     The leaders, addressing a U.N. Security Council debate on the
impoverished Caribbean nation, also pressed world governments to turn over
more of the development aid they promised at an international donors
conference last July.
     The United States, European Union, World Bank and others agreed at the
conference to pour more than $1 billion into Haiti over the next two years.
But due in part to the lack of security, donors have been slow to fulfill
their pledges.
     A U.N. peacekeeping mission was sent to help bring stability to Haiti
after President Jean-Bertrand Aristide was forced from power following a
bloody revolt in February 2004.
     U.N. peacekeepers have made "lots of progress in terms of security,
but people in their day-to-day life want to see progress in terms of
infrastructure, removing the garbage, creating hospitals, and so on," said
Chilean Foreign Minister Ignacio Walker.
     "We cannot permit ourselves to decrease the level of priority Haiti
has assumed in the international agenda," Brazilian Foreign Minister Celso
Amorim told the council.
     Adherence to democratic principles was crucial for the success of
elections planned for November by Haiti's transitional government, said
Billie Miller, foreign minister of Barbados and chairwoman of the Caribbean
Community's Council for Foreign and Community relations.
     She called on the government to fully investigate allegations of
"egregious abuses" by the Haitian police and to release all political
leaders detained without charges.
     Juan Gabriel Valdes, who heads the U.N. mission in Haiti, welcomed
last month's provisional release of some long-detained leaders of
Aristide's Lavalas Family party.
     While Valdes hoped the leaders' release would contribute to a national
dialogue aimed at political reconciliation in time for the elections, he
said he remained concerned by the continued detention of others including
former Prime Minister Yvon Neptune, held for nearly a year without a trial.
     The U.N. mission was also investigating alleged human rights
violations and other offenses linked to Haiti's national police, Valdes
said. Ending such abuses would make the election more credible while
encouraging public participation, he said.
     Haiti's foreign minister, Yvon Simeon, blamed his country's rights
woes on its dictatorial past. "Initiatives are under way to end impunity,
guarantee judicial independence, make the police more professional and thus
establish an order where law prevails over violence and strength," he said.
     But more outside economic aid was also needed because inadequate
funding for development also undermined human rights and the restoration of
democracy, he said.