7715: CIP: Towards a Negotiated Settlement? (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Max Blanchet <maxblanchet@worldnet.att.net>

April 25, 2001
Movement Toward a Negotiated Settlement
A CIP update

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At the Summit of the Americas President Aristide sought a personal
meeting with President Bush. Bush did not initially respond. Aristide
turned to President Mejia of the Dominican Republic and asked him
to arrange a meeting. Bush and Secretary of State Colin Powell had
a two-hour meeting with Aristide and Mejia. Aristide had a chance
to explain his side of the electoral dispute to the Americans. He was
nevertheless pressed on his eight-point commitment. He left promising
to correct the situation within days.

Previous to the summit, but separate from the Civil Society Initiative,
Ambassador Guy Alexandre and constitutional scholar Claude Moise
were asked by Aristide to prepare a possible compromise position.
They did so but it has yet to be endorsed by Aristide. The Center
does not have a copy of Ambassador Alexandre's proposal but it
is said to be similar to that issued by CLED, the Committee for Free
Enterprise and Democracy, which called for new elections in one year.

On April 25 the Democratic Convergence wrote Aristide inviting him
to a meeting on Friday, April 27 at the Hotel Rancho to prepare an
agenda for the negotiations. The Civil Society Initiative would help
conduct this meeting. Mario Dupuy of the president's office said
that contacts were being made to have true negotiations with the
opposition.

Aristide has not responded to the invitation to a meeting, nor did
he answer the Civil Society Initiative's earlier call for a resumption
of the negotiations. However, the additional pressure of the Quebec
meeting may bring him to the table.

The Quebec meetings charged the OAS with reinvigorating the
negotiations and a mission is expected down in the first week of May.
Press reports had it that Secretary-General Cesar Gaviria would lead
the mission, although that seems unlikely.