OAS To Send Mission To Haiti (fwd)

[Robert Corbett <bcorbett@netcom.com>]

From:nozier@tradewind.net

Friday August 4 7:29 PM ET   OAS To Send Mission To Haiti    

  WASHINGTON (AP)- The Organization of American States' permanent
council agreed Friday to send a mission to Haiti to explore ways of
strengthening democracy in that country. The action came after an OAS
mission that monitored the recent electoral  process in Haiti concluded
that runoff elections on July 9 were ``fundamentally flawed'' because
they failed to include races for 10 Senate seats.A resolution approved
Friday by the permanent council authorized OAS Secretary General Cesar
Gaviria to head the mission to Haiti. The delegation also would include
representatives of a United Nations group set up to support Haiti's
democratic transition. The July report by the OAS Electoral Observer
Mission to Haiti said the 10 Senate races should have gone to a second
round because no candidate won an absolute majority in the first round.
Gaviria was part of a mission that went to Peru several weeks ago to
recommend electoral reforms there    following a disputed electoral
process.