6177: Events in Haiti (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

(from Caribbean Insight newsletter)

(8 Dec 00)



Final official results of the November 26 presidential election gave former
President Jean-Bertrand Aristide 91.7 per cent of the total vote.  His
nearest rival, Protestant pastor Jean Arnold Dumas, won two per cent.  In
third place was neo-Duvalierist Evans Nicholas with 1.6 per cent.  Marc
Bazin, who was prime minister under the 1991-94 military dictatorship,
conferred with Aristide on December 4 and said he was willing to serve
Aristide if changes were made in economic policy.  Bazin was beaten by
Aristide in the 1990 presidential elections, winning only 14 per cent of
the vote. 
        Amnesty International said on December 4 that there had been "a
sharp deterioration" in the "increasingly grave" human rights situation in
Haiti and warned that the proposed withdrawal of the UN peace mission could
have "a catastrophic impact on human rights protection" in the country.  It
said newly-elected local and regional officials had "begun establishing de
facto and highly partisan security forces" of their own which had already
gone into action.
        The most recent of such incidents took place in the southern town
of Cavaillon on the day before the election, when the town's mayor, Martel
René, the local parliamentary deputy, Jean Candio, and a group of armed men
burst into a church, roughed up worshippers and caused damage, to force the
parish priest, Fr Yves Edmond, to cancel services planned for election day.