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26311: Craig (news) Haiti elections key to rejoining Caricom (fwd)




From: Dan Craig <sak-pase@bimini.ws>


Haiti elections key to rejoining Caricom
By Bert Wilkinson
The Associated Press
Posted September 23 2005

GEORGETOWN, Guyana · Haiti likely won't be welcomed back into the 15-nation Caribbean Community unless the country holds free and fair elections later this year, the bloc's secretary general said Thursday.

Edwin Carrington said several Caribbean leaders conveyed that message to Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin during a meeting on the sidelines of last week's U.N. General Assembly.

Martin, whose government has sent about 100 peacekeepers to help stabilize Haiti, had voiced concern that the regional bloc known as Caricom may have isolated the violence-torn country for too long since a February 2004 revolt toppled President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, Carrington said. But the leaders insisted that restoring ties could happen only if Haiti takes steps to ensure Nov. 20 presidential and legislative elections are legitimate, including improving voter registration and making the Electoral Council more efficient, Carrington said.

"Without an acceptable election, relations with Caricom would be difficult," Carrington said Caribbean leaders told Martin during the meeting. The leaders added that Haiti's Electoral Council "does not seem to be getting its act together," Carrington said, without elaborating.

The Caribbean Community suspended Haiti shortly after the revolt that ousted Aristide, the country's first democratically elected leader. The bloc has refused to recognize Haiti's U.S.-backed interim government, saying it was unconstitutionally installed.

Haiti's elections have been postponed several times because of logistical snags and crippling violence blamed on well-armed street gangs bent on destabilizing the country. Voter registration has reached 2.3 million, or about half of those eligible.

Carrington said Martin told the leaders he "felt that Caricom might have stayed out of the Haiti situation ... for too long."

The meeting was attended by Interim Haitian Prime Minister Gerard Latortue, Guyana President Bharrat Jagedo, Grenada Prime Minister Keith Mitchell, St. Vincent Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves and St. Kitts Prime Minister Denzil Douglas, Carrington said.

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/nationworld/sfl-ahaiti23sep23,0,2840178.story