8312: Haitians want foreign aid rather than political accord - Dame Eugenia Charles (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

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

Haitians want foreign aid rather than political accord - Dame Eugenia
Charles
BBC Monitoring Service - United Kingdom; Jun 15, 2001

Text of report by Caribbean news agency Cana

Roseau, Dominica, 14 June: The release of foreign aid rather than the
genuine need to resolve political differences, appears to be forcing the
re-election for seven disputed Senate seats in Haiti, former Dominica Prime
Minister Dame Eugenia Charles has said.

Dame Eugenia [representing Caricom] and Secretary-General of the
Organization of American States (OAS) Cesar Gaviria negotiated the agreement
with Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide which was approved by the
General Assembly of the OAS in Costa Rica earlier this month.

"I found that the Haitians are only interested in what financial help they
can get from the international world. I don't know if they are interested in
having the matter solved," Dame Eugenia told the Caribbean News Agency
(Cana) in an interview on Wednesday [13 June].

"They are interested in making sure they can receive assistance from the
international world, so do all the other ambassadors representing other
countries there as well," she added.

Her view reflects that of some analysts who believe the agreement could
result in the release of millions of dollars in foreign aid to the Caribbean
nation which had been withheld because of its political problems.

"I think they will be glad to see some settlement of some form," Dame
Eugenia said.

President Aristide has been facing objections from the 15-party opposition
alliance Democratic Convergence over the seven disputed seats following
legislative elections last year.

Dame Eugenia said that under the OAS-approved plan, the senators had already
resigned and a date set for new elections before the delegation left Haiti.
"It is what we hoped would happen," she said, while admitting that of the
several different groups which she met, "there were no two agreeing with
each other" and that Aristide "made the most sense".

Another key area of the agreement is the establishment of a Provisional
Electoral Council. "The important thing is that they have to appoint a new
national committee to deal with the elections. In that committee we tried to
get everybody who had a (political) point of view represented," Dame Eugenia
said.

"The persons who we met are determined to have it straightened out," she
added.

Source: Cana news agency, Bridgetown, in English 1839 gmt 14 Jun 01

/BBC Monitoring/ © BBC